Digimon Tamers: A New Genesis
by xxGenesis.Incxx
Summary: This new Digital Adventure stars a whole new group of Digidestined as they are transported to the Digital World and must find each other, their future partners, and a mysterious man named Gennai all while trying to defeat an evil Digimon called Boogeymon! This is an OC featuring some old fan favorite partners
1. Chapter 1: A New Beginning

I rubbed my eyes and reached for my obnoxiously beeping alarm clock. The sun was streaming through my bedroom windows, and rushing to my eyes like a bursting dam. I put my hand up to shield them. I looked on the ground, judging by the snoring, I figured Carson hadn't woken up yet. Carson was a boy about five inches shorter than myself, with short messy dark brown hair, his hazel colored eyes rolled up to my face groggily.

"Matt, turn off the sun." He said rolling over to cover his face with his pillow, and groaning loudly.

"Did you turn the alarm clock on last night?" I asked him.

"No, one of your parents must've come in and done it while we were asleep." He said, trying to stay awake.

I chuckled to myself. My name is Matt, Matthew David Brooks if you were hoping for a full name, but my friends just call me Matt. I'm eleven years old. I'm pretty tall for my age; my skin tone is a light brown. My mother has always called it Mocha. I have short afro-like curly hair. The boy lying on the ground is my friend Carson, he too is ten years old, but he's older than me by a couple months.

I stretched my body out and yawned, Carson had slept over the night before, because today was our first day of camp, My mother had volunteered to work some extra hours in the morning at the pediatrician's office she usually worked at, and my Dad had his regular job at Indiana University, so Carson and I had to take my little sister Alea to her friend Hanna's house.

I sighed, "Nick told me yesterday that, he was picking us up in front of Jessica's house at ten o'clock. He said he was going to be driving a big white van." I said.

"Well what time is it now?" Carson asked, finally sitting up.

I shrugged and looked over at the clock for the first time. My eyes widened, "Oh crud! Carson get up you bum, its 9:45!"

Carson seemed to have gained a burst of energy. "What, but Nick said he was going to pick us up at ten?!" He jumped up and grabbed a change of clothes, his tooth brush, and his hair brush.

"We should get breakfast first!" I said rushing out of the room.

"What about showering?" He asked, frantically trying to zip up his bag, and replace something into a drawstring bag.

"Forget it," I shot back, "We can do it when we get to camp, just put on some deodorant."

I threw open my bedroom door and ran out into the hall way. The tan painted walls reflected the light from an open window right into my eyes. I banged on my sister's door, "Alea, get up we're leaving in fifteen minutes!"

She opened the door, "I've been ready for half an hour." She said.

"Well, then why didn't you wake us up?!" I asked aggravated.

"Why, so you guys could end up lying in bed and be late anyways?" She said with a mocking smile.

"Then just go over to Hanna's house!" I replied hastily.

"Whatever," She replied, "Good luck," She looked down at her orange wristwatch and said, "You guys are going to need it." She walked down the stairs, opened the front door and walked across the street.

I popped two toaster pastries into my family's white toaster, and set it to a three minute cook time. I ran back up stairs and quickly brushed my teeth, in a few minutes Carson and I were both ready, but we had a little over four minutes to run ten blocks, I looked down at my watch, 9:57 AM. I ran into my bedroom, and quickly grabbed my cell phone, and turned it on. We grabbed our toaster pastries, and ran out the door; I used my house key to lock it back. We ran as fast as our feet could carry us with all those bags. My black and green drawstring bag was bouncing and hitting the bag of my head with every step.

We ran two blocks, three, and four. I was losing breath fast, and the grip I had on the two large bags under both of my arms. But we couldn't stop now, the bus was insight, we could see the rest of the kids. We saw the last person get on the bus, a girl named Jessica. She was shorter than me, but taller than Carson, a good height for a girl of age eleven. She had dark-brown hair, and hazel eyes, almost identical to Carson's, her Caucasian skin was slightly pale. I looked back at Carson; he was shielding the sun with his right hand.

I remembered something; I had packed two pairs of sun-glasses my favorite pair of green and black, and an extra blue pair, incase my pair of choice were to break. I pulled the two pairs of sunglasses off of the neck of my shirt;

"Heads up!" I yelled as I swiftly tossed the blue pair to Carson.

"Thanks man." He replied.

I slipped the green pair onto my face, still trying to hold onto to my bags. We began to run faster now, putting every iota of energy we had left in our bodies into one insane burst of speed.

We began to yell now, "Wait! Hold on! We're coming!"

The van began to pull off, just as we reached the stop, but it screeched to a halt, and someone opened the door. A tall man named Nick looked at us, his slight beard looked fuzzy, and his eyes look slightly upset.

"Guys, I told you ten o'clock sharp, if it weren't for Ben I wouldn't have known you were coming." He said.

We sighed, "Sorry Nick, my sister never woke us up."

Nick sighed, "It's okay this time, seeing as it's only your second year." He said.

"Thanks Nick." We patted him on the back as we climbed into the van. Carson's eyes scanned the cabin trying to locate his younger brother.

Ben waved, he was a seven year old boy, he was short for his age, but he was extremely smart. He had short spiky blond hair like white fire, and his slightly peach Caucasian skin reflected that of his brother's own.

"Carson," Ben cried out, "You'd better love me for that!" He said jokingly as Carson swung past him and rubbed his head.

Jessica looked over at us, "Well guys, one more person to pick up, and we'll be on our way to camp."

I grinned, "Yeah, this is going to be so awesome, I can't wait!" I exclaimed.

The bus chugged along, after about five minutes it came to a stop in front of a large cul-de-sac. A boy wearing a t-shirt that read "Toby Mac's Winter Slam Fest" was sitting in some grass near a sidewalk. He had short clean brown hair; his round face had light brown freckles. And he wore dark brown cargo pants almost identical to the pair I was wearing; only mine were sand brown. I stuck my head out the window.

"What are you waiting for Nate? Come on we're burning daylight!" I yelled to him. He looked up at me and laughed.

Nathan climbed into the van and thanked Nick for picking us up. He put his bags in an empty seat, (considering we were the only ones in the large van, it was pretty easy to do) and swung in to sit next to Ben.

"Hey guys, everyone ready, only three hours left!" He said with a grin on his face.

I stretched my body out and yawned, "Well then, wake me when we get there." I said putting my headphones in my ears, and turned on the song Leave out All the Rest by Linkin Park. I put my hands behind my head, and closed my eyes.

I heard Carson's fading voice say, "That's the last time we stay up until three-in-the-freaking-morning watching a South Park marathon on Comedy Central, the night before camp."

Ben laughed, "If Mom knew that's what you guys had been watching, you'd be grounded for weeks!"

I assumed at some point I fell asleep, because Ben was trying to wake me up. My dark green t-shirt was ruffled, and I was lying in an awkward position.

"Matt, Matt get up we're here." Ben said shaking me.

I grumbled, "Awesome."

I stood up and brushed myself off. You could feel the excitement in the air. We chatted amongst ourselves and walked over to the boy's dormitory steps. This year at camp, girls and boys could hang out in a room but only with an adult in the dorm. On the camp registration form we had to fill in a while back Carson, Ben, Nathan, and I had requested each other as dorm roommates. I looked up through the trees at the sunny blue sky above.

"Guys," I began, "What should we do first?"

Jessica grinned at me, "Well, we need to check in of course, and get our room, after that we should take the swim test, just to get it out of the way."

Ben nodded, "Yeah, but whatever we decide to do, we can't forget about the game of hide and seek."

"What about it?" I asked

"Well," Nathan began, "Every other year on the first night the councilors run a compound-wide game of hide and seek at night. It's a lot of fun actually."

I chuckled, "Hide and seek, aren't we a bit old for that?" I asked.

"Jessica laughed, "That's right, this is only your second year. Well, that's what I thought too the first time I played, but it's actually a great way to meet new people, and I guarantee that you'll make lots of new friends."

I nodded, Carson stood up, "Well, what are we waiting for, let's go!" We stood up and walked off, as we left a short boy with short dark-brown hair, walked past us with two other kids with him. I noticed on his arm, he wore a giant, rectangular, gold colored watch.

'I wonder what that's all about.' I thought to myself.

We walked down a long black paved road, and passed by lots of kids. Luckily before we had left, Nick passed us and unlocked the bus, so we left our stuff on it. The sun was shining; it was hot outside, the perfect day for camp. We could see kids swimming in the lake, running around, and just hanging out. The atmosphere was upbeat, and we were all ready to get the day started off right. As we approached what would've been the girl's dormitory, we began seeing multitudes of people making their way in as well. We opened the double doors, only to find, the gymnasium had more people than we had expected. I gasped slightly; it seemed more people had shown up this year than ever before. The grey walled gymnasium had about four check-in desks set up.

For about the next 45 minutes we stood in line, waiting for our turn to begin our week of relaxation, and fun. I didn't think I had ever seen so many kids and teenagers in one place before in my life!

"Well," Nathan began, "I think I'm going to sleep on the top bunk this week." He said turning to me, "I prefer being up there, than on the ground, it's just more comfortable."

Ben seemed to finally realize, "Hey, wait a second, I called the top bunk on the bus!" He shouted at Nathan.

"No, no I don't recall hearing you say, I want the top bunk." Nathan replied quickly.

Ben was turning slightly red; he had always thought Nathan was a bit of a snob. "Fine Nate, take the top bunk, but we get to control the air conditioning!" Ben said to him.

"No fair," Nate shot back, "You guys know I like to keep it cold in the room; you'll just make it hot!"

"Well Nate," Ben said, "It sucks to be you, for once in your life think of someone other than yourself!"

I'd had enough of their senseless bickering, but Jessica seemed to have gotten to it before I could, "Will you guys just shut up!" Jessica yelled.

Carson jumped in, "You guys sound like an old married couple! If you two didn't remember, there are two sets of bunk beds; Matt and I will sleep on the bottom bunks."

I sighed, "We aren't even checked-in yet and you two are already at each other's throats." I shook my head.

The sun was pouring in through the windows. It wasn't long before we had checked in and given our dorm building A, room D9. Jessica was in Dorm B, her room was A3. We walked back to the Van and got our stuff. Jessica split off from our group, but promised that she would be back soon. We headed into the dorm building and quickly found our room. I inserted the key we had been given into the lock, turned it, and opened the door.

The room wasn't fancy in the least bit, but to us, it was paradise. Sunlight and warm air surfed through the lone, large open window. The room had two wooden bunk beds, and air conditioner that had been into the wall directly under the window, a very tight bathroom, which consisted of only a toilet, peeling paint walls, and a cracked tile floor. The bedroom itself had reddish-brown carpeting. The walls, which were tan, appeared to have been newly painted, which would've explained the open window. There was a small sink with a large mirror above it, and a cabinet underneath it. The room also had one set of drawers; there were enough for us to each have one. It didn't really matter though; all we ever used it for was to sneak in our candy stash.

Nathan and Ben had been in charge of getting candy this year, apparently we had stopped at a gas station on the way up to camp, and the two had bought a large load of different candies, which they quickly dumped out into a drawer. We set our bags down next to our bunks. I slept underneath Ben on the right side bunk, and Carson slept underneath Nate on the left side. I pulled a pillow out of my luggage and tossed it onto my bed. There were clean dark blue sheets already set on the bed.

I kicked off my shoes and slipped on a pair of black and white sandals which I had packed the night before. My friends were doing relatively the same thing.

I sighed, "Guys, this is the life." I said, flopping onto my bed.

Ben leaned over the side of the bunk, "Yeah and just think the lowest temperature all week is supposed to be a sunny 84 degrees."

We all cheered. "This is week is gonna be so chill!" Nathan exclaimed.

"Yeah, and I bet Matt's excited too." Carson said with a laugh.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well because Jessica's here of course, and we all know about your little crush."

My face turned shot red. Ben and Nathan laughed at me and made kissy faces.

"I do not like Jessica!" I yelled at Carson.

"And why is that?" Jessica asked walking into the room.

My face turned even redder. "Can't you knock first?" I asked turning over onto my side with my hands behind my head.

"I did," She said, "Four times, but you all were yelling too loud to hear. So what's the big discussion about?"

Ben grinned mischievously, "Oh were just talking about how Matt has a crush on-"

I lunged up at him, "I'll kill you!" I said, shoving his head into my armpit. I turned to Jessica, "We were talking about Digimon, I swear!" I exclaimed.

Ben kicked and flailed, and finally I let go of him. He stuck his tongue out at me. I heard Jessica mutter under her breath, "Boys." and laughed.

When everything had calmed down, Jessica asked, "What's Digimon?"

Carson looked over at her, "You don't know what Digimon is?"

Jessica shook her head, "Sorry."

I grinned, "Its only the greatest thing of all time. It's a franchise about kids teaming up with creatures called Digimon to fight off evil forces that threaten the Human and Digital Worlds."

"Oh boy, here we go," Nathan said, "You've got him started up now."

I rolled my eyes and got back into my bunk.

"Wait," Jessica said, "I think I've seen that on TV once!"

I grinned, "Did you like it?"

She shrugged, "It was okay, I guess."

Carson laughed, "It's all Matt ever talks about, Digimon this and Digital World that."

I laughed, "What can I say I have an obsession." I said raising my hands in defense.

After an hour or so of relaxation, we realized all we had left to do was head over to the lake and take the swim test.

"I call the bathroom first!" I called running into the small lavatory in our room.

I quickly grabbed my swimming trunks. They were green with a white rim on the ends of each pant leg. I changed quickly. When I came back out Ben was looking at something in one of my bags. He held it up. It was a poster with characters from my favorite show and video game, Digimon.

"Ha-ha, Matt, of course the room wouldn't be complete without hanging this up." I grinned, "Of course dude!"

I said, "Agumon is a beast."

I began gesturing towards the large dinosaur-like creature standing on two legs. Its skin was orange, and its two hands sported three giant claws on each one. Its feet were the same. It had shining green eyes, and sharp fangs.

Nathan groaned, "Matt, you've got to get your head out of the clouds bro!"

He chuckled slightly, "Digimon aren't real dude it's just a bunch of crap made up by some people who're trying to make a couple bucks."

I groaned, Nathan could be a jerk sometimes, but I knew he was just looking out for me.

"I guess." I said reluctantly.

"Well," Ben said, walking over and putting one hand on my shoulder, "Matt," He said sighing, "I know you love Digimon, but the possibility of the internet, or any wireless communication form of any sort, possibly being able to sustain intelligent and evolving life, is completely ridiculous."

Jessica sighed, "Well, they're still cool, I like the cat one!" She said enthusiastically, in an effort to cheer me up.

I chuckled, "Gatomon." I said to myself.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked.

I looked at her, "The Digimon you like is called Gatomon." I said with a grin.

She nodded, "Yeah," She said slowly, "Sure. I'm going to change. The girl's bathroom is right down the hall, I'll just go there." She said opening the door and walking out.

Carson quickly changed into his swim trunks; they were like my pair, only blue instead of green. We decided to go on ahead of Nathan and Ben, promising to meet up with them eventually.

We slipped on our sandals, grabbed a towel out of our bags, and left the room. The long hallway had a dark green carpet, and multiple wooden doors; each seemed to have some kind of finish on it because, they all gleamed brightly in the sun light. We had soon entered a lobby-like area, and were greeted by large glass double doors. When we exited, our noses were presented with the scent of food being prepared, flowers, and fresh cut grass. We inhaled deeply, the aroma was intoxicating. We walked slowly to the lake, wanting to enjoy every last bit of these new fragrances that we could take in.

As we walked, we talked about trivial things, school, siblings, and girls.

"Dude," Carson began, "Jessica is so annoyed by us." He said laughing.

I began to laugh too, "Yeah, did you see the look on her face, when I told her about Gatomon."

We were cracking up now, trying to take in air, but our laughter blocked any oxygen from entering our bodies. When we had finally stopped laughing Carson spoke,

"He's kind or right you know?" He said.

My face turned puzzled.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Nathan," He replied, "His whole rant about how Digimon aren't really and junk."

I shook my head and sighed. "Not this again." I said quietly, and I began to walk faster.

"No, wait Matt!" Carson said running to catch up with me. "Dude, I get where you're coming from, wanting to believe Digimon are real and stuff." He began sincerely. "Now, don't get me wrong dude, if Digimon were real, it would be the greatest thing ever! But the fact of the matter is they aren't." He said.

"I know Carson," I began, "But I feel like if I can just hold out hope for a little while longer, something in my life is going to change. Something that will free me from my life of boredom, free me from my same-old, same-old routine."

Carson sighed, "I know what you mean Matt, I feel like that all the time. The only reason I act like this is because, if something doesn't happen, I don't want you to end up all depressed, just living life like a ghost." He said looking me in the eyes.

"Yeah," I began, "But that's why you and I are best friends because, we've been there for each other through times like that." I said smiling.

Carson nodded with smile on his face,

"We always will be." He said.

We did our usual handshake, grip our fingers together, and then slide them away. When we finally got to the lake, very few kids were there, a couple children who looked a bit older than we were. However, they were still there taking the swimming test. Just then a short, Caucasian boy with short dark brown hair came running at me. He rammed right into, sending me rocketing off of the pier Carson and I were standing on.

I flew through the air and splashed loudly into the murky water. I stood up, on the shallow dirt, completely soaked.

"Hey," I yelled, "What's your problem?!"

The boy reached down off of the pier, and helped me climb back onto it.

"I'm so sorry." He said.

Carson didn't say anything.

"I-I, I was…umm…" He said.

I shrugged, "You apologized." I said. "Don't worry about it dude. My name's Matt."

I said offering him a handshake. He accepted it smiling,

"I'm Landon, nice to meet you."

Carson nodded towards him, "I'm Carson." He said.

Landon greeted him as well. I looked down at Landon, there was something on his wrist, it was very large, it looked like a round edged rectangle. There were multiple small panel-like things that appeared to be made of glass on the top-center, a small indent on the side pointing at me look like half of a marble. The complete device was a beautiful shimmering gold color.

"That looks cool, when I saw you earlier today I noticed it on your arm. What is it?" I asked, lifting his arm to eye level.

"It's just an old watch my grandpa found at a garage sale this one time." He said obviously lying. "Uh-huh." I said, not believing his story.

"I chuckled, "It's funny, it almost looks like a Digivice." I said with a grin.

Carson laughed, "Dang it Matt, enough Digimon stuff."

Landon laughed, "Yeah, Digivice, come on, then I'd have to be a Tamer. Okay, okay, I was kidding about the whole watch thing, it's an old toy Digivice. I'm a huge Digimon fan. I was just afraid you'd laugh, but now I can tell you are too."

Carson laughed, "That's cool, I'm surprised you don't have one Matt." He said, he turned to me and my expression was blank.

"I don't have one because, they don't make toy Digivices." I said.

Landon sighed, "Look we're both fans, and Matt, you know a lot about Digimon as I can tell. So come with me, I'll explain everything, but I trust you guys to keep things quiet."

He gestured towards the gravel, on which Carson and I had walked here. As we walked down the road, with the hot sun beating down on us like a flamethrower, it seemed to be getting hotter and hotter every hour.

Landon spoke, "Okay, look, before I tell, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone, without my permission. This is one of my biggest secrets, only three other people besides you two know."

Carson and I nodded, "We won't tell anyone." We said simultaneously.

Landon sighed, "Okay, here we are."

Carson and I looked up hoping to see something amazing; something super natural, but we got was the Dorm we were staying in.

"It's in my dorm room." Landon said, leading us inside. Landon's room was very close to the entrance, only a hallway down from our room actually.

When we got to his room, he knocked a tune on the door, and then unlocked it. We walked into the room. There were only a few bags and a suitcase lying on the ground.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Carson asked.

"No, hold on." Landon replied.

He walked into the bathroom and stayed there for a few minutes. When he finally came out, he was accompanied by a large yellow creature standing on four legs; each foot had three short claws coming out of them. Carson and I simultaneously gasped.

"What the heck is that thing?!" We exclaimed.

The creature was about three feet tall there was a small crystal like gem on its forehead no bigger than a small stone. The shell on its head and back looked as hard as a diamond, and resembled that of an armadillo's own. Its underbelly was purple.

"This," Landon said gesturing to the creature next to him. "Is my partner Armadillomon, he's a Digimon, which is short for Digital Monster. This thing," He said holding up the device on his wrist, "This is my Digivice, it's a device Digimon Tamers, like me, use to control our Digimon partners, each one is different."

Carson and I were still completely paralyzed from astonishment. It was amazing, Digimon really were real! The only thing I could think to say was,

"Yeah, what now Nathan?!" I exclaimed.

Carson laughed.

"Hi," Armadillomon said. "It's nice to meet you."

He had a slight southern accent. I couldn't help smiling; it was really true; Digimon were real! I couldn't believe it!

"Landon," Carson began, "How did you meet Armadillomon?"

Landon grinned. "He Bio-Emerged into the Human World from the world Digimon live in on the Internet called, The Digital World!"

Carson and I were amazed.

"I saved him from some police that though he was an alien, yup, back when I lived in Illinois; we used to fight all kinds of evil Digimon that Bio-Emerged into our city."He said with a large grin.

"Yup," Armadillomon began, "We're the unstoppable team! No Digimon can beat us!" Landon nodded, "That's right." He said with a chuckled, patting Armadillomon on the back.

A few hours passed, and soon it was dark. We looked at a clock that was hanging on one of the bare walls. It was now about 8 PM I gasped,

"Guys, we've got to go! Dinner ends in twenty minutes, and we've still got to find the guys, tag starts right after that!" I exclaimed.

Carson groaned, "I completely forgot!"

Armadillomon wagged its tail. "Can I come too Landon?" Armadillomon asked.

Landon grinned, "Sure buddy, I'll just put you inside my Digivice."

He held his hand up, and a large ring of small connected light blue and white squares appeared around it glimmering brilliantly. He slid it over the panels on the top of his Digivice, and then pointed it at Armadillomon. Carson and I gazed in wonder, as Armadillomon was absorbed into the Digivice. Landon walked over to us, showing us the panels, which appeared to double as a screen.

"Say hello Armadillomon." He said.

The picture of Armadillomon's face didn't move, but we heard something say hello, in his voice. "What heck was that?!" I asked over excitedly.

"Oh, that was my fractal code." He said.

Carson and I probably looked pretty lost about then.

Landon sighed. "Every human and Digimon that live in or have visited the Digital World has a unique fractal code. It's a physical manifestation of the Digital Matter lingering inside your body." He took a breath. "Digital Matter; is…umm….honestly I'm not quite sure what it is, but it's a very unique form of matter. When a human and a Digimon accept each other as equals, and become Digimon Tamer and Partner they develop a strong bond, and then the Tamer is given a Digivice," He said showing us his. By this time we had exited the building and had begun walking towards the Cafeteria.

"Once you have a Digivice, when you've learned how to control your fractal code, it can be used to your advantage." He said with a grin.

Carson asked before I could. "What to do you mean?"

Landon simply said, "Maybe you'll get to find out for yourself someday."

I smiled. "That day would be the greatest day of my life." I said enthusiastically.

When we finally arrived at the cafeteria, we found Ben, Nathan, and Jessica, having already eaten. They were sitting at a circular table talking; they saw us walk in and waved us over. I smiled triumphantly because now, not only did I know Digimon were real, but I also knew I was right and Nathan was wrong. That's when I remembered the promise I had made to Landon I sighed.

We sat down at the table deciding we would just have some snacks when we got back to our dorm rooms later that night.

Ben asked, "Who's the new kid?"

"Oh, this is our new friend Landon." Carson said.

Landon said, "Hello," with a smile.

Soon we could hear a man's voice coming in over the intercom, "Hey there Campers!" The voice said. "We're getting ready to start our Annual game of Zero Vision Tag!"

The excitement began to build, which dorm would be picked to be the Seekers, was probably the question on everyone's mind. I looked around the cafeteria, I watched all the kids whispering to their friends. The lights shone brightly over every table brilliantly illuminating the room.

"We will now choosing the dorm that will lead the game, as seekers." I desperately hoped we would be Seekers. You could easily hear paper ruffling; they were probably drawing the dorm name from a bowl.

"Our Seekers this year are, Dorm D!"

We all let out a low sigh, not us. Landon perked up though, "Hey guys, come on look at it this way, at least we don't have to spend hours wondering around mindlessly in the dark."

I grinned, "Yeah, that's always a plus."

People around us began to leave, the game was about to start. We took our trays to a small metal slot in the wall and pushed them through, one at a time.

As we exited the cafeteria, I turned to Ben; his hair was easily visible in the barely lit darkness. We passed a few street lamps, and moved towards an area where people were converging. The grey gravel road we were walking on kicked up white dust with our every step. Trees swayed in the night time summer breeze, and the water from the nearby lake sparkled in the moonlight.

When we finally arrived at the source of the noises, a multitude of teens and children were standing next to a small roofed shack that was selling snacks. The voices of the people talking were only pierced by the screech of a megaphone. I man with tan skin and spiky hair stood on a step stool so everyone could see him. The game was beginning, I nudged Carson.

"Here we go." I said, and we did a fist bump.

"You will all have 15 minutes to find a hiding place, and remember try to hide with your friends, we don't need any accidents, or anyone getting lost." The man said.

The campers murmured. "When the horn sounds, the game will begin." The man said.

He held up the megaphone, and it screeched. The game had begun. Campers scrambled like ants in all different directions. We were the last ones standing at the shack, 15 minutes was a lot of time to hide, but then again, the camp grounds were a big place. Landon started running towards the woods, and we were right on his tail.

"Landon!" I called as we pushed away tree limbs and ran through all kinds of bushes.

"Where, exactly are you taking us?!" Carson asked. He kept running foreword and we still chased him.

"I found this place a few years ago; it's a little far out, but still on the grounds. I hide there every year, and no one has ever found me." Landon yelled back.

Ben was right behind me, with Carson to my left hand side. Ben pulled back a tree limb, and whap! It hit Jessica right in the face. "Watch it!" She exclaimed holding her nose, it looked like it was bleeding a bit, but all of us were a bit scratched up from the underbrush.

How Landon could tell where he was going was beyond me, it was now pitch black, I could barely see two feet in front of me. I felt vulnerable, and I didn't like it. Landon's voice still sounded close.

"This way you guys!" He said, and again we followed.

Nathan muttered under his breath, "This is ridiculous." Quite frankly I agreed with him.

We had been walking for at least 20 minutes now and my legs were starting to get tired from constantly being hit by the underbrush.

I sighed. "Landon," I said breathing heavily, "Can we rest for a minute; we've been running for twenty minutes straight!" I said.

Ben pulled out his cell phone. "Thirty minutes." He said correcting me. I glanced back at Landon, but it was probably too dark for him to tell. Heck, I didn't even know what I was sitting on.

Landon sighed, "Come on you guys, it's just a little further." He said attempting to pull me.

I groaned and we all got up and followed Landon again. This time however he was serious, it was only about another five minutes or so of walking we finally found an overhead break in the trees. I spread my arms out and welcomed the sweet embrace of the shining moonlight.

Landon sighed, "See I told you it would be worth it."

It definitely was worth it the air smelled cleaner here, and we were sitting in a ring of trees. There bushes that appeared to have berries and crimson and white flowers growing on them, and a warm breeze surfed through the air. I flipped onto the soft grass on the ground. I put my hands behind my head, crossed my legs, closed my eyes, and just breathed in the sweet smelling air. I turned I rolled my head over to find Jessica lying next to me.

I took a shot I decided to ask her, "Do Carson and I annoy you?" Her face sunk and she started to respond, but was interrupted by a loud beeping noise.

I sat up quickly. I looked around; the beeping had been coming from Landon and now he was unsuccessfully trying to make it stop.

Nathan stood up, "What's up with your watch Landon?"

Suddenly a small light blue glowing hologram of Armadillomon appeared hovering over the screen on his digivice, everyone except Carson and I either gasped or looked completely alarmed.

Then to make matters even worse, Armadillomon's voice began being projected from the Digivice,

"Landon," Armadillomon began. "A Digimon just bio-emerged."

Nathan pointed at the Digivice and asked, "Is that thing real?!"

Ben's question was next, "What's going on here?!"

Jessica was after him, "What did you do Landon?!"

Suddenly hundreds of questions began flowing from the mouths of my friends like a burst dam. No one had even noticed how calm Carson and I looked.

Landon had finally had enough. "Shut up!" He exclaimed. "Okay, here's the deal. I'm a Digimon Tamer, and somehow, a Digimon has crossed over from their world into our world without having a Tamer."

Nathan stopped him, "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me, that this whole time, Digimon have been real?!" Landon nodded slowly, I couldn't help but grin.

Nathan turned and started walking back towards the camp but Landon cut him off. "Where are you going?" Landon asked.

Nathan shoved him aside, "Dude, don't be stupid, we've gotta call the Special Forces or the CIA or something, that thing out in the woods could be dangerous!"

Landon shoved Nathan, "Or it could be completely harm…"

Before he could finish his sentence, a high pitched, dark laugh pierced the silence of the forest. Landon stepped back a bit.

"Everyone get behind me!" We all quickly did.

He summoned his fractal code and slid it quickly over the screen, the hologram was emitting from. He pointed the tip of the Digivice at the ground, and Armadillomon appeared.

The yellow Digimon growled. "Whatever's coming, it's definitely not friendly."

We were all looking around frantically. Suddenly clouds covered up the moon, and we were cloaked in darkness once again. Ben quickly pulled out his cell phone; the rest of us did as well. This would be the only light we would have. Blood red glowing eyes pierced the black edge of the woods.

The ground began to shake and the air felt thinner. I thought I was beginning to faint, the world around me began to distort, almost as if I were inside of a heat wave.

Carson called out, "Okay, is it me or is the world getting all blurry?!"

Landon watched around frantically. "What's going on?!" I yelled to him, I could barely hear myself think, a buzzing noise had started.

Suddenly a loud pop the size of a sonic boom exploded, and a tare appeared, just floating in the air. It began sucking us in. I held onto the ground for dear life, until the dark laughter started again. I began to lose consciousness, and let go of the grass.

I felt like I was inside a vacuum, I tried to breathe in, but there was nothing too breathe. All around me I could see blurry colors, some of which I had never seen before! I was falling, I looked around, I couldn't see any of my friends, and finally I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2: Junction City

Light flooded into my eyes. I sat up abruptly, and hit my head on the trunk of a tree. I groaned, and stood up rubbing the back of my head. I looked around, the sky was blue, and I was standing next to a clear, flowing stream.

'How long have I been out?' I thought to myself.

That's when I realized, I couldn't see any of my friends.

I called out, "Guys! Can you hear me?!"

There was no response, until. "Matt is that you?" A voice called back.

"Yeah, stay where you are!"

I ran towards where I was hearing the voice. I began seeing less and less grass, until I was standing next a waterfall on a Cliffside.

I cried out, "Where are you?!"

I heard a loud crack. "Down here!" The voice said.

I looked over the Cliffside and found Ben hanging for dear life on a rotting branch.

I gasped. "Don't move Ben!" I yelled down.

I groaned he had to be at least 30 feet below me. I couldn't even see ground from where we were. I looked around, there was nothing I could use to reach him, I decided the best way to save Ben would be to jump down and grab, hopefully we could grab part of the cliff closer to the ground.

I yelled down, "Ben, I'm gonna jump down and try to grab you!"

Ben yelled, "Do you have a death wish, you've got no idea how far it is to the ground!"

I groaned. I was tuning him out, even though he was right. I stepped back a few feet, ran and jumped off the cliff.

I heard Ben yell, "Dang it Matt!"

Air was quickly pushing against my face. I was approaching Ben fast.

Just as I was about to pass him, I grabbed the end of his shirt and pulled him down with me. He screamed the whole way down, until after about three minutes he yelled, "How are we still falling?!"

Crash! We dropped into a deep lake. I looked around; something was swimming at us, fast! I swam up to the surface as fast as I could. Ben was already waiting for me on the rocky shore.

"Did you see that?" I asked him.

He nodded slowly. "Matt," He said standing up and looking around, "Look!" He said pointing to a large village nearby, it was entirely made of colorful blocks.

"Where are we?" I asked him, in amazement.

"Wherever we are, it's safe to say it's not Bloomington."

I nodded, "Definitely."

Now that I was looking at it properly even the sand was weird looking. I kneeled down and picked some up in my hand.

"Look, did you notice this?" I asked Ben.

He nodded. "It's purple instead of tan."

I let the sand flow out of my hands.

"So," Ben asked. "What do you think we should do?"

"Well, there are buildings over there, buildings means people." I said.

"So, you think we should go?" Ben asked.

I nodded.

"If they kill us I swear..." He said.

We headed towards the small village. The sun was shining brightly down. The village was hidden in trees. As we began to walk into it's confines we noticed something moving in the bushes. A red creature with blue stripes on its body in the shape of fire, it had eight tails the same color as its body, its face was bluntly pointed and its bright blue eyes looked ready to attack. It's under belly was seen because it was standing on two of its four clawed feet.

"State yourselves!" The creature demanded.

I jumped back a little. "It can talk?!" I yelled.

"Who are you calling it? My name is Elecmon!" It said.

"I'm Matt, and this is my friend Ben." I said.

Elecmon clenched its fists, "Why are you here?" Elecmon asked.

Ben shrugged, "I wish I could tell you, our friend Landon took us to a forest and we…"

Elecmon interrupted him, "You know of the human, Landon?"

I nodded. "We went to camp with him." I said.

Elecmon smiled, "So you must be humans too! Tell me, what is the human world like?"

I thought for a minute, "Umm green?"

He sighed, "Just as I had pictured it."

Ben shook his head, "Ok, where exactly are we?"

Elecmon smiled, "Where do you think you are?"

Ben sighed, "If I knew I wouldn't be asking."Elecmon nodded. "Of course, come with me, we'll head over to my hut and I'll answer all of your questions."

Ben and I followed Elecmon through the village of colorful blocks. Every building we could see was made of the enormous blocks. We could sense movement in the bushes around us. We could see multiple sets of eyes, and suddenly a green creature with a very round head that sported one horn and a slug like body sprang out onto my head. I screamed and fell backwards. It sat on my chest. It had big brown eyes, and a single horn on its perfectly rounded headed. I tried to scramble away, but it stuck to me.

It looked angry, "Who are you human? Why are you here?!"

I was astonished; I had seen this Digimon before, once when I was at home watching a TV movie.

"If I knew, would we still be separated from our other friends?" I asked the green Digimon.

It looked at me, puzzled.

"What is your name?" The Digimon asked.

"I'm Matt and that's Ben." I said pointing to my friend. "What's your name?" I asked the Digimon.

"I'm Gummymon." It said.

It hopped off of my chest. Slowly many different types of Digimon began to come out of the bushes.

I turned to Elecmon, "There are so many Digimon!" I said.

He nodded. "Welcome to Primary Village." He said, as he led us into the hut. Gummymon followed us in.

"Please sit." Elecmon said gesturing towards two small tables stationed next to a larger one.

I crouched all the way to our seating arrangement; the ceiling was very low and ridged. I sat down Gummymon hoped onto my shoulder.

"So," Elecmon began, "What questions do you need answered?"

Ben offered up a question, "How did we get here from the real world?"

Elecmon shrugged, "Very few Digimon ever make it to the Real World and those that do never return." He shook his head, "I've heard stories of Digimon traveling there to Digivolve, and to find a tamer, but before Landon, human's coming here had just been a myth. Very few Digimon remembered humans ever coming to the Digital World before him!"

I stood up abruptly, "You mean we're the only humans in this whole world?!"

Gummymon went flying off of my shoulder, his head hit the wall and he began to cry. I ran over and picked him up and wiped the tears off his face with my shirt. He watched me carefully.

I smiled at him, "You're still a baby aren't you?" I said with good intentions.

He glared and jabbed me with his horn, "I am not a baby! I'm big and strong, I can beat anyone!"

I dropped him and yelped. He scampered out of the house. I grabbed my arm.

I sat back on my make-shift chair and said, "He's crazy." I said, rubbing my arm.

Elecmon sighed. "Don't take it personally, lately an evil Digimon called ShadowToyAgumon has been coming here, to our village and wrecking havoc every night." Ben and I nodded. "This Digimon," Elecmon began, "It killed a friend of Gummymon's, and he tried to save him, and almost lost his life in the process. So now, every night Gummymon challenges him. Weakness is a touchy subject for him."

I sighed, "That really sucks." I said. Ben nodded in agreement.

I stood up and almost hit my head, I looked out the window.

"Well," I said, "We've got no choice, we're gonna help you beat that Digimon." I said with a grin.

Ben looked shocked, "Matt, this isn't a game who knows what could happen if something were to go wrong. Do you even have a plan?"He asked.

I shrugged, "I guess we're gonna wing it."

He looked even more shocked now, "Are you dumb or just crazy, you realize you could die right?"

I sighed, "Ben you just don't get it, in the show every time kids were called into the Digital World it was because they were Digidestined, special Tamers. What if we're Digidestined?" I said turning to him.

I could see the light outside and that's when it hit me, it was night time when we were in the real world.

Ben started to speak but I stopped him, "Ben," I said walking out of the house. I looked around Primary Village was a ghost town there wasn't even a hint of life besides us. "What time was it when we were in the Real World?"

He too realized. "It was night time." He said.

Suddenly a blanket of darkness abruptly swept over the world as far as we could see. Elecmon shuttered, "It's night time he'll be coming soon."

Ben was awe struck, "So that's how the time of day changes in the Digital world? One radical or the other, not even Dusk, just darkness." I nodded in agreement.

Ben and I turned around to see Elecmon's hut go up in black flames. We watched as Gummymon was flung through the air and crashed into a tree near us. I ran to its side and asked, "You need any help." I looked me straight in the eyes and nodded.

I turned to Ben and said, "If you won't help him, then I will!" ShadowToyAgumon crashed through a small hut and looked at us. It was about four and half feet tall and made entirely out of black and grey blocks, it was supposed to look like an Agumon. Its eyes appeared to have been painted on the sides of its head; however I could clearly tell it was looking at us.

It sneered, "A human? What are you doing in the Digital World?!"

I put on the best war face I could muster. "We're here to stop you from tormenting these Digimon!"

I looked at Gummymon and it grinned, "Yeah and we're going to pay you back for Tsunomon!" I assumed that was his friend. I lunged forward and grabbed a stick off of the ground nearby. I charged at ShadowToyAgumon and smacked the stick across his face it shattered.

The Digimon laughed at me, "Is that the best attack you've got? You humans are pathetic!" I punched the ground in anger, I didn't know what I was getting into, Ben was right. I had never fought a Digimon before in my life.

Gummymon spring boarded off of my back and exclaimed, "Double Bubble!"

I began to spit out a countless number of pinky frothy bubbles.

ShadowToyAgumon seemed mildly disoriented by the bubbles, but quickly became focused again; it dashed at us and exclaimed, "Toy flame!"

I large black ball of fire appeared in front of its mouth, it shouted with enough force that the ground shook and the black fireball shot at Gummymon and I, I tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late. My entire body went numb and I was blown into a tree. Gummymon lay on the ground a few feet away from me.

I grunted with pain as I crawled to its side. I looked over my shoulder and saw ShadowToyAgumon slowly walking towards us. Ben ran up behind it and jumped on its back. He grunted with force as he tried to hang on to the evil Digimon.

I struggled to sit up as I heard Elecmon shout, "Sparkling Thunder!"

Thunderbolts fired from its tail and struck ShadowToyAgumon. It fell on its back and struggled to get up. It threw Ben into a nearby building; he lay motionless on the ground. Elecmon ran over to him and shielded him. ShadowToyAgumon stood up and growled, "I'll deal with you two, after I'm done with your friends."

It turned to us and exclaimed, "Fancy Star!" Small shining golden star surrounded its body. He pushed his arms out towards us and the stars followed his command charging towards us.

I yelped reached over and grabbed Gummymon and threw him away just in time to feel the sting of the stars hitting my body, it was like having thousands of needles in my body all at the same time. I screamed in pain and collapsed onto the ground. I couldn't move. Gummymon rushed to my side, with tears in its eyes it said, "I can't let him hurt another one of my friends." Its sadness turned to rage as it rushed at ShadowToyAgumon with incredible speed. Its head collided with ShadowToyAgumon's chest and propelled him backwards.

I could feel Gummymon as though he were next to me; my strength was slowly coming back. I tried to stand up and accomplished the task with ease. I ran over to Ben, I put my hand over his mouth, he was still breathing, but in slow spurts. I stood up now re-energized I yelled at ShadowToyAgumon, "You hurt my friends! I'm gonna make you pay for hurting Gummymon, Ben and Tsunomon!"

Although on the outside I felt completely overrun with anger, on the inside, in my heart I felt completely calm. I could sense a new connecting to Gummymon and that's when I noticed a large white light emanating from my left wrist, it was warm, overpowering. When the light had dissipated a green shining object was on my wrist. It was metal; or maybe and extremely hard plastic. It glistened and had the appearance of a large oval watch with a transparent point coming out of the front of it and at least six clear panels on top of it.

I looked at it and turned to Elecmon, "What the heck is this thing?"

Elecmon looked awestruck, "It's a Digivice!" He said. "It's an extremely powerful item given to Digimon Tamers; even I don't know what they're really capable of!"

I studied the Digivice with my eyes. I gasped, "But that means, I'm a Digimon tamer!" I said jumping into the air.

Gummymon ran to my side, "Does that mean, I'm your partner?" I smiled and shook my head.

We turned back to ShadowToyAgumon who was now extremely perturbed, "What is going on?! That weakling has a Tamer?!"

It laughed evilly, "We'll there are legends, that if defeat a tamed Digimon in battle and absorb their data, then you will be able to travel to the human world." He smiled darkly, "I guess we'll have to find out if those legends are true." He opened his mouth wide and exclaimed, "Toy Flame!"

I clenched my fist, and suddenly I felt this warmth inside of my body, a power unlike anything I'd ever felt before, I looked down at my hand and a ring of data was circling it, just Landon had showed us in the dorm room. I looked up and quickly dodged the oncoming fireball. ShadowToyAgumon looked shocked. It roared and shot even more fireballs at us, which we dodged easily. I looked up to see Ben, now conscious watching me with his mouth open. I gave him a quick grin and a thumb up. He nodded back at me.

I turned to Gummymon, "Hey Gummymon, I'm going to try something, I want you to stand near ShadowToyAgumon."

Gummymon watched me carefully and nodded reluctantly. He dashed forward and head-butted ShadowToyAgumon. I cringed, 'I just got a partner.' I thought to myself, 'I don't intend to lose him yet.' I quickly swiped the Fractal Code across the top of the Digivice just as Landon had done, and the word "Digivolution" spread across the screen. The Fractal Code was absorbed into the top of the Digivice and shot out of the point towards Gummymon. The shining data stream engulfed his body in the form of an egg. On my Digivice I could see the change occurring inside the egg. A voice tore through the air and exclaimed, "Gummymon digivolve to…Terriermon!"

The egg shattered open and a new Digimon burst forth. My Digivice began beeping I tapped the screen and a small holographic figure of the Digimon appeared it was small and a white-tan mix color with one horn its forehead two hands, two feet with thick black fingers toes. Its body also had two long ears with three tendrils that looked like fingers drawn by a small child which were green. It had two thick green lines on each ear one above the other. It was chubby and also sported a green triangle under its neck and green wrists. Its eyes were the color of milk chocolate.

A small description under the hologram read, "Terriermon: Rookie Level Digimon. Vaccine Type. Special Attacks: Terrier Tornado and Bunny Blast." I turned to my new partner. "Terriermon," I said. "Let's take this guy down!"

Terriermon gave me a half grin, "It's about time. I've been waiting for this."

I turned back to ShadowToyAgumon; he was smiling and said, "So that's Digivolution? Oh well, your Digimon is still a weakling."

I could tell Terriermon was ready to fight. I yelled at Terriermon, "Go get him!"

It responded with an angry, "Gladly!"

It rushed at ShadowToyAgumon and exclaimed, "Bunny Blast!" It fired multiple green blasts of energy from its mouth at ShadowToyAgumon. The resulting explosion sent him flying through buildings. I cringed as houses were destroyed. I thought of the Digimon who would have to rebuild their homes.

Terriermon began spinning its body like a twister until it was a total blur of green, it exclaimed, "Terrier Tornado!" It collided with ShadowToyAgumon and it screamed as sparks flew off of its body. It cried out in pain and exploded into shiny dust.

Elecmon yelled, "Terriermon quickly absorb that stuff it'll make you stronger! It's called Loading Data!" Terriermon nodded and took a deep breath. The shiny dust was drawn into his body and it glowed brightly. When all the data had been absorbed Terriermon ran over to my and hugged me.

"He jumped onto my shoulder and hung on using his ear. I smiled at him, "We did it. ShadowToyAgumon can never hurt anyone again. Who knows now that ShadowToyAgumon is gone you may see Tsunomon again someday."

Terriermon smiled. "Thank you Matt." He hopped down and together we walked over to Ben and Elecmon. Terriermon laughed, "Check me out." He said posing like a body builder. I laughed. Ben watched me as if I were a super hero.

"I can't believe this is real." He said. "You were right all along about everything! I mean, you're a Tamer now!" I smiled.

"Oh please," I said, "You're making me sound like a Superhero." I laughed. I helped him up and he thanked me. Digimon from all around the village came out of their homes cheering and applauding.

Elecmon stood up on his hind legs, "You've saved us!" He said. "You've we're brave and strong!"

I blushed. "It was nothing." I said trying to hide my body aching.

"You are welcome to stay in the village as long as you'd like." He said. A few Digimon in the crowd nodded.

Ben and I smiled, "Thank you," I said. "But, we're going to have to leave soon."

Elecmon nodded, "I understand, you must find your friends."

"Thanks for understanding, but if you'll have us, we'd like to stay the night." Ben said.

Elecmon smiled, "I think I speak for everyone in the village when I say our doors are always open."

Ben and I thanked the villagers and we all returned to our respective homes.

I looked at Elecmon's home, "There's gotta be something I can do about your house Elecmon." I said to him.

He looked at me my Digivice, "Maybe your Digivice can fix it, if everything in the Digital World is Data then maybe the Data from your Fractal Code can repair my house!"

I shrugged, "It's worth a try." I pointed my Digivice at the house. I felt the warmth in my body and my Fractal Code appeared. I swiped it over my Digivice, and the Data shot out the front and engulf the house. When it dissipated the house was as good as new.

Elecmon thanked me.

"No problem," I said, "It was your plan."

He grinned and led us back into the house. We sat down at the same table and after a few hours of waiting Elecmon brought out a small grill and a large bag of pale tan colored apples.

"What kind of apples are those?" Ben asked.

Elecmon pulled one out of the bag and tossed it to Ben while saying, "A meat apple." Ben caught and studied it with his eyes.

"What's a meat apple?" He asked Elecmon.

"Exactly what it sounds like," He said, "A meat flavored apple."

Ben shrugged and went to take a bite out of it when Elecmon stopped him, "You don't want to eat one raw," He said. "They can make you very sick." Ben shuttered and thanked him. Elecmon handed Terriermon and I Meat Apples and tried to light his grill.

He groaned in frustration. Terriermon hopped onto the table and said, "Let me help you with that."

He opened his mouth just enough that you could see inside a tiny bit. A small voice resonated through the air, "Bunny Blast!"

Terriermon began shooting small green energy balls at the coals and sticks in the grill and they slowly ignited. Soon we had a strong fire going. Elecmon took out a spit and grilled the apples for us. The smell of grilling meat filled the room. When they apples were done, their color had changed to a brown. I took mine from him. It smelled like steak. I bit down and the taste of hot steak filled my mouth. I looked at the gap, the flesh of the apple was a dark pink and there were no seeds. The texture; however was exactly the same as a regular apple.

"Mine taste like Spicy Italian Sausage!" Ben said.

Elecmon smirked, "What's that?" Elecmon asked.

"It's a type of meat in our world." Ben said, "It's delicious!"

I smiled and thought home, we must have been gone for hours now.

"People must be frantic looking for us." I said with a chuckle.

Ben raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well," I began, "Back at camp, we've been gone for hours; someone's got to have noticed by now."

Ben nodded, "My parents are gonna kill Carson and I when we get back for leaving the camp." He sighed. I shook my head; my own parents would be beyond upset too.

After eating a few more meat apples Ben, Terriermon, and I retired to mat like beds. As the lanterns around the hut went out, I lay in my bed next to Terriermon. Very quickly I could hear Ben snoring. He deserved the rest; he'd been through quite an ordeal today.

I turned to Terriermon and said, "I can't wait for you to meet Carson. You're gonna like him, he's really cool. Nate too, but he didn't think Digimon were real before this."

Terriermon grunted, "Why would he think Digimon weren't real?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. He means well though, he just doesn't have a very open mind."

Terriermon shifted next to me. I rolled over away from him.

"It looks like I got my wish though."

"What are you talking about?" Terriermon asked.

"Before we came here, for years I wished to be a real Digimon Tamer, to be different, to have an exciting life. Now that I have it, it doesn't seem as fun, if I make a mistake I risk getting you or Ben hurt."

Terriermon turned back to me. "I couldn't have asked for a better Tamer." He said.

"When you helped me Digivolve, I felt something, strong, inside your heart; you're different from anything I've encountered before you have a strong heart."

I smiled, "Thanks Terriermon. But tomorrow the real challenge begins we have no idea where were going, nor do we have any idea how big this world is."

Terriermon sighed, "Matt, you worry too much, we'll find your friends. We can do anything, as long as we work together."

I reached over and patted him on the head. "Of course buddy." I said. I started to fall asleep until I was awoken by a dream in which I relived the event that brought us to the Digital World.

Terriermon was staring at me, "Are you okay?" He asked me.

I shook my head, "I don't know." I explained to him about the portal, and the evil creature. "Do you have any idea what it could've been?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I have no idea; there are lots of Digimon in this world, good and evil. It could've been anything."

I nodded. "You need to go back to sleep though, you're gonna need your energy for tomorrow."

I nodded, "Thanks Terriermon." He smiled; I gave him a half hug and lay back down. I listened to Ben snore for a while and eventually I fell asleep.

Something was shaking me, "Time to get up Princess." Ben said.

Elecmon and Terriermon were shaking me. I sat up and yawned. "You were out like a dead man." Ben said helping me to my feet.

"What time is it?" I asked.

Ben shrugged, "Why don't you check your Digivice?" I nodded and tapped the screen, nothing came up. I showed him.

"That's strange." He said, "We've got to be in some time zone."

I looked down next to Elecmon there was a computer chip and a back pack. "I gathered some food last night after you all fell asleep." He said handing me the bag. I pulled it on.

"This is a map of the Digital World." He said. "There is one other place like this area in the Digital World; it's called the Village of New Beginnings. I should warn you though; it's on the other side of the world."

I nodded, in realization of our situation. "Also I think you should know, along the way you are supposed to find a man called Gennai, the last time a human came to the Digital World it was because, he summoned them here, and he probably did the same for you and your friends. Both locations, including your current one and a place called the Trailmon Port are marked on the map."

He handed me the computer chip. "How do I read it?" I asked.

He nodded towards my Digivice. "Put it on top off your Digivice." I nodded and did as he told me to. I watched in wonder as the data chip was absorbed into the Digivice.

A small icon of a map in it appeared. I tapped it and a hologram a planet appeared. I tapped one of the marked locations and an icon appeared and read, "Primary Village". When I double tapped the globe it disappeared.

I looked at Elecmon awe-struck, "That's incredible!" I said.

"But how are we supposed to get from one side of the world to the other?" Ben asked.

"Why, on Trailmon of course." Elecmon said.

"What's a Trailmon?" I asked.

Terriermon looked at me dumbfounded. "You don't know what a Trailmon is?"

I shook my head. "Sorry." I said.

"It's a Digimon that takes other Digimon all over the Digital World on railways."

Ben grinned, "Like a train!" He exclaimed.

I nodded. "But we don't have a ticket, and we're completely broke, I've got no money!"

Elecmon walked over to a drawer and pulled out two tickets, "I won these a while back in a lottery, but it's my duty to watch over these Digimon so I never leave the village. Please take them as a token of gratitude for what you did yesterday."

I thanked him and took the tickets. I placed them in my bag under a brown sack containing bread.

Elecmon led us to the door we stepped outside into blinding sunlight, I covered my eyes. Small Digimon were playing nearby in the river.

Terriermon jumped onto my shoulder, "I'm sure gonna miss this old place." He said.

"Yeah, everyone here's great." I said.

Ben and I turned to Elecmon. "Thank you so much for your hospitality." Ben said.

I nodded, "It was great to get to be here."

Elecmon smiled, "Thank you for saving our village. Good luck on your journey, get strong and maybe we'll meet again someday!"

"I wouldn't doubt it." I said, patted Elecmon on the head.

Terriermon jumped down, "It's been good Elecmon." He said hugging him with his ears.

"Stay safe, get strong, and keep them safe." Elecmon said to him.

Terriermon nodded. He hopped back onto my shoulder. I tapped the screen on my Digivice and the hologram of the Digital World appeared I tapped the Trailmon Port and the hologram went back into the digivice, but now showed an intricate map explaining how to get to the Trailmon Port.

As we waved good bye to our new friends and attempted to follow the map Ben asked, "Matt do you think we're all destined to be Tamers, or do you think we all came here because of you."

I thought, "I think we're all destined to be Tamers, but I don't think that's the only reason we came here, I think we're supposed to defeat whatever that evil creature was that appeared when we came here."

Ben nodded, "Well that's reassuring." He said sarcastically.

I laughed, "Don't worry we can do it."

He nodded, "Sure, but for now let's just focus on getting to the Trailmon Port."

I looked at the map I tapped our location and the screen changed from a map to a compass, I assumed was leading us towards the Trailmon Port.

"We need to head south from here Ben." I said pointing a mountain range in the distance.

"Alright let's get moving! This isn't going to be a short trip." He said.

I nodded. And we were off into unknown territories, with who knows what waiting for us.

A warm breeze flowed through the sweet smelling air. The grass was soft and a lush green color. However soon it became thick and dark colored, we were approaching a forest. We stopped in front of an arch made of bent trees.

I turned to Ben, "Doesn't look like we've got any way to get around it."

He nodded. "What do you think Terriermon?" I asked.

"We have to be very careful." He said. "Only strong Digimon can make it through this Forest easily."

I nodded, "Well it's decided, let's go."

We headed into the forest. The air was stale, and darkness quickly took over. I looked at my Digivice we've got to head that way." I said pointing towards what appeared to be a large cherry tree.

As we walked passed it Ben feel over a root sticking out of the ground. The tree grunted. I gasped and whispered to Ben, "Are you okay?" He nodded.

My Digivice started beeping like crazy. I tried to stop it but a hologram of the tree appeared, it was a Digimon.

"Ben," I yelled. "Move; it's a Digimon!"

He hopped backwards just in time to avoid being crushed by an oncoming branch. I read out loud, "Cherrymon: Ultimate Level, Special Attacks: Vine Attack and Cherry Bomb."

Ben jumped out of the way to avoid a Vine Attack. Wines whipped at him at incredible speeds.

"Are you the ones making that racket?!" Cherrymon asked, he turned and swung at me.

I turned to Terriermon, "Get him!" I exclaimed.

Terriermon nodded, jumped into the air and exclaimed, "Bunny Blast!"

He shot giant green energy balls at Cherrymon. It had no effect at all. Cherrymon smacked him onto the ground. He got up slowly and ran to my side. Ben sprinted over too.

"We've gotta get out of here!" I said.

He nodded and we headed for a cave nearby. Cherrymon pulled his roots up and chased us. We ran as fast as we could and dove into the cave. The entry hole was much too small for Cherrymon so he replanted himself outside and waited.

I sighed and started to back into the cave when something grabbed me by the mouth and pulled me down. I flailed and kicked when I looked up and saw Jessica looking down and telling me to be quiet.


	3. Chapter 3: Boogeymon

I smiled. "Jess!" I said with as much excitement as I could while being quiet.

She smiled. "It's good to see you again."

I nodded, "You too!"

At the same time we noticed each other's Digivices, her own was identical to mine, except it was black. "How'd you get yours?" She asked.

"I'm a Tamer." I said, "This is my partner, Terriermon."

Terriermon stepped forward. "It's nice to meet you." He said.

She smiled, "He's adorable!"

I rolled my eyes. Terriermon blushed. "All the ladies love me." He said.

I laughed, "Look what you did Jess."

She chuckled. "Hey Ben, how's it going?" She asked.

"Fine." He said flatly.

"What's up with him?" She asked.

I shrugged.

"Oh well come with me, my new friend Salamon is watching something bad happening over here."She said.

I gave her a thumb up and we followed her deeper into the cave. The ceiling grew closer and closer to my head until a point at which we were all crawling on our hands and knees. As we crawled along the ground we could hear voices in the distance growing increasingly louder. Grunts and groans could be heard and finally we came to a ledge. Sitting crouched on the edge was a small blonde puppy. Its ears were stuck up listening to the event taking place below us.

The large caved in are below us was illuminated by burning torches.

Jessica crawled up next to the other Digimon and asked, "What's going on Salamon?"

The Digimon looked up at Jessica, "They've just been arguing!" Salamon said gesturing towards the two Digimon below.

My Digivice began to beep I smothered it just as the Digimon looked up at the ledge.

I softly said, "I'm getting data on three new Digimon. I'll start with Salamon: Rookie level, cool, it says here that she's a Vaccine and a Data type Digimon. Her Special attacks are Puppy Howling and Sledge Dash."

Jessica nodded, "Salamon, these are my friends Matt and Ben, and this is Terriermon Matt's partner."

Salamon grinned, "Glad to meet you." She said offering her paw for a hand shake to Ben and I and we accepted it. Terriermon shook her hand as well. I crawled closer to the edge.

"So tell me the situation." I said looking down at the two Digimon one was a dark green color with the appearance of a goblin. His head sported a bright red Mohawk and he held a large wooden club in his left hand.

The other Digimon was a large ladybug like Digimon, only it stood on two legs instead of crawling. Jessica pulled up the data on the two Digimon on her Digivice.

She read aloud, "Okay, the big, ugly, green one is called Goblimon; it's a Rookie level and Virus type. Its Special Attacks are Goburi Bomb and Gobli Strike."

I nodded.

"I think he's trying to rob the other Digimon. He's called Tentomon he's a Rookie level Digimon and a Vaccine type. His Special Attack is Super Shocker." She said.

Ben grunted, "We can't just let Tentomon get pushed around by Goblimon." He said.

I nodded, "Okay."

"Well then," Jessica said, "Let's go."

We jumped over the edge and slid all the way down to the ground. "Hey you, yeah, the big snot rag! Get away from him!" Terriermon yelled.

"Yeah, leave him alone!" Salamon barked. "You can't just push people around like that!" She exclaimed.

"Please, please help me!" Tentomon said, "This Digimon attacked me while I was returning home from a visit to an old friend's house. I haven't done anything wrong!" He pleaded.

Goblimon spat on the ground and in a deranged voice said, "Who allowed you human insects to enter our world?"

Jessica groaned. "If we knew do you think we'd still be here?!"

Goblimon didn't seem to be listening, "It doesn't matter to me I'll destroy you right now!"

Goblimon rushed at us. We dodged him.

I yelled to Ben, "Take Tentomon and get away from here, you can't help us right now!"

He started to protest but stopped and nodded. Tentomon began hovering above Ben.

"Follow me," Tentomon said, "I know a way out of these tunnels."

Ben nodded, took a last glance at us, and followed Tentomon into an opening in the tunnel wall.

I turned to Terriermon, "Are you ready to bring the hurt to this guy?"

Terriermon nodded, "Let's take him down!" He said stepping closer to Goblimon.

Salamon hopped over next to him as Jessica yelled, "Go get him but be careful!" Jessica yelled, "We don't want to cause a cave in while were in here!"

Salamon nodded and Terriermon gave a thumb up.

The Digimon duo charged at Goblimon. Salamon landed a punch to the stomach and Terriermon planted a head butt on Goblimon's face. The Evil Digimon was thrown into the cave wall. The cave began to shake.

"Okay, while he's unconscious, let's get out of here." Terriermon exclaimed.

Jessica nodded. Salamon spoke up, "I know the way out! Follow me!" It ran down the tunnel Ben and Tentomon had gone through.

Soon it was pitch black again and only the light from our Digivices were allowing us to see the way. After several minutes of walking we began hearing a grumbling behind us.

"Crap, sounds like Goblimon is looking for us." I exclaimed.

"Looks like we've gotta get our butts in gear!" Terriermon said running forward.

We followed him until the end of the cave was insight.

Suddenly we heard a voice behind us yell, "Goburi Bomb!" Something exploded next to my head. I felt shell shocked and fell over. Jess helped me up.

"Matt? Matt!" She cried, "We're almost there stay with me."

I saw Ben at the end of the now collapsing tunnel, yelling for us to hurry. We heard another bomb exploded next to me knocking us all over. A rock fell onto Goblimon's head and he yelped in pain.

Tentomon flew in and exclaimed "Super Shocker!"

Hitting Goblimon right in the face and sending flying back into the collapsing tunnel. We ran as fast as we could and just barely made it out of the cave. Ben helped Jessica lay me down on the ground.

"Are you okay Matt?" Ben asked me.

"Yeah dude," I said sitting up, "I'll be okay; I've just got a headache."

He nodded.

Tentomon hovered over my head, "That was a close call." He said.

"I chuckled, "Too close for comfort." I said. "Thanks Tentomon I owe you one!"

The Digimon nodded, "There is one thing I'd like to ask you for though."

I nodded, "You name Tentomon you just saved our lives."

Jessica grinned in agreement.

"That tunnel system was what I had been using for a home seeing as Goblimon destroyed the tree I used to live in, so I was wondering if you would be willing to let me join you on your journey."

I sighed, "Tentomon I'm not sure about that one, and we don't have enough supplies for everyone."

"Please!" Ben begged, "Tentomon's my friend he just wants to help us."

I sighed.

"Matt please Tentomon's into science things like me, he's really smart."

I turned to Jessica.

"What do you think?" I asked her.

"I say let him come." She said.

"Okay," I nodded. "He can come with us Ben." I said.

Ben jumped up with excitement. Tentomon flew around him in circles.

I laughed. "Now help me up so we can get going." I said.

Everyone helped me up. I touched the screen on my Digivice and pulled up the map Elecmon had given me.

"What the heck?!" I exclaimed.

Terriermon looked up, "What's wrong?"

I sighed, "This can't be right. According to this map we've already traveled over half the distance to the Tree of Beginnings!"

Ben shook his head, "No that can't be right," He said, "We've only been walking for a few hours.

Jessica spoke up, "That cave system is weird Salamon and I walked through it at least nine times and every single time the cave exit was somewhere different. Like one time it was in a rain forest area, and the next time it was in a desert."

I sighed, "That's insane." Salamon chuckled, "That's the Digital World for you, there's no other places are like it."

I nodded, "Isn't that the truth. Well according to this map we've only got a couple more miles to walk until we get to Junction City. That must be where the Trailmon Port is." I said gesturing towards the red dot on the hologram.

Jessica stopped me, "You're not on vacation you know, we should be looking for our friends!"

I nodded. "That's exactly what we're doing a Digimon called Elecmon told us we might find them at a place called The Tree of Beginnings." I said, "So that's where we're going."

"He also told us there is someone we're supposed to find in this world named Gennai." Ben added.

I nodded. "We're wasting time standing here; we've got to get moving." I said walking in the direction of Junction City.

Jessica just stood there watching us.

"Are you coming or not?" Terriermon yelled to her.

Salamon looked up at her, "Jessica, I think we need to go, if we're trying to get your friends back together, there's no point leaving the one's we've already found."

Jessica sighed, "Yeah, your right." She said and the two of them ran after us.

I groaned, "A desert, why'd it have to be a freaking desert!"

Ben fell onto the ground, "I can't go any farther you guys, this heat is way too intense, I think I'm just gonna lay here and pass out for a while. You guys can go ahead if you want."

I sighed, "I agree with Ben," I said turning to Jessica, "I think we need to take a break."

Jessica nodded. I lay back in the sand. The sun felt like it was literally burning my eyes. I groaned and put my hands up to shield my face.

That's when I remembered, "I've still got my sunglasses from camp!" I exclaimed, I reached into my pocket and pulled them out.

I grinned. "Yes!" I said with a sigh, as I slid them onto my face.

I put my hands behind my head and started to fall asleep when I looked over at Ben, the poor kid was soaking in his own sweat. I groaned and took off my sunglasses.

"Here," I said. "Put these on, they'll protect your eyes."

He smiled and took them from me. "Thanks Matt." He said putting them on.

"Yeah," I said, "You're welcome." I laid back.

"Aww," Jessica said mockingly, "Look at Matt being a big brother."

I groaned, "I don't see you doing anything to help him lazy." I said.

She stuck her tongue out at me.

"At least I didn't get us lost." She said crossing her arms.

"We're not lost!" I shot back, "The map said to go this way!"

Ben interrupted our argument, "It sounds like some people of the pre-teen variety are getting hungry." He grinned. "Let's eat!" He said.

I nodded, I was getting hungry. I took the bag off of my back and handed out bread to everyone. We ate in silence, and soon the entire bag of bread was gone. I lay back and started to fall asleep.

Terriermon said, "Matt, this is no time for sleeping, we need to find some water!"

I sighed, he was right it was getting hotter by the minute.

Ben nodded, "If we don't find some fast, we could be dealing with dehydration, hysteria, all kinds of bad things."

Jessica nodded, "Alright we get it. Let's go."

We stood up and again followed the map to Junction City. After trudging through the sand for a while we saw something in the distance.

Ben pointed it out, "Do you guys see that?"

I shaded my eyes. "No way," I said, "It couldn't be."

Jessica sighed, "It's a fridge!" She ran to it.

We followed close behind her when we got to the fridge; I turned to Terriermon, "What's a fridge doing in the middle of the desert?" He shrugged. Suddenly, five strange Digimon stepped out from behind the fridge.

They laughed. "Humans?" They said. "What are you doing here?"

The group had the appearance of some kind of Feline-Rabbit hybrid with long black claws and grey fur. They wore jet black, shiny sunglasses on their faces.

"Who are you guys?" Salamon asked.

One of the Digimon kicked sand at Salamon, "No weak Digimon like you is allowed to even as much as look at us."

I groaned and my Digivice began to beep. "These punks are called Gazimon, Rookie Level, Virus Type Digimon, Special Attacks: Pitfall and Paralyze Breath."

They laughed, "That's a fancy toy you kids have got there. Listen why don't we take them from you?"

Jessica grunted, "Look, we don't want any trouble. We just want to see what's inside that fridge!"

The Digimon growled, "Well little lady," One of the Gazimon said, "You and your little friends have got trouble because we're, The Gazimon Gang!"

They laughed and bared their fangs, "If you humans want to see what's inside that fridge over there, you've gotta pay the fine first, 10,000 Digi-Dollars!" One of the other Gazimon said.

Terriermon growled, "Matt, I've had just about enough of these posers!"

I nodded, "I'm with you on that one!" I said.

Jessica looked down at Salamon, "You ready for some action?" She asked her.

"Anytime, anywhere!" Salamon replied.

The two Digimon rushed at the Gazimon Gang and attacked.

Terriermon jumped into the air and exclaimed, "Bunny Blast!"

He shot a giant green ball of energy from his mouth, It one of the Gazimon in the face sending him flying onto his back.

Salamon charged another Gazimon and exclaimed, "Sledge Dash!"

She rushed at a Gazimon with blinding speed and head butted it square in the chest. The Gazimon fell onto its hands and knees gasping for air.

He got up and groaned, "You rotten brats will pay for that!"

He turned to his group and said all together, "now!"

The group nodded and together they exclaimed, "Paralyze Breath!"

They released an enormous cloud of black smoke from their mouths. I ran over and threw Terriermon out of the way of the gas. I accidently inhaled some and my body began to shake compulsively and soon went completely stiff. I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, and I could only barely breathe.

I looked over Jessica was in the same condition I was. However, Ben had avoided the smoke.

He screamed at the Gazimon, "What did you do to my friends?"

The Gazimon fell over laughing and one of them said, "Let's just we got "board" of playing with them."

"Yeah," The other exclaimed, "Didn't anyone ever tell your stupid friends that planking went out of style?!"

Ben groaned, "Those jokes were just terrible!" He said.

He charged at the Gazimon with Tentomon, Terriermon, and Salamon by his side. One of the Gazimon jumped into the air and dove at the ground, he began tunneling. However; Ben hadn't seen him go under.

Salamon exclaimed, "Puppy Howling!"

It let out a bark with the power of a sonic boom. The Gazimon held their ears in pain.

She rushed at one of them and exclaimed, "Sledge Dash!"

She sent the Gazimon flying upwards.

Terriermon jumped up, aimed at it, and exclaimed, "Bunny Blast!"

The Gazimon screamed in pain and was turned into data. Salamon jumped into the air and absorbed the data.

The other Gazimon were in pure shock, they looked at us with fear and said as a group, "We really enjoyed playing with you today, but now we're gonna make like bananas and split. This isn't the last you've seen of the Gazimon Gang!"

They ran off leaving only a trail of dust in their wake. Ben turned and gave me a thumb up. I grinned; I realized I could move my mouth now. The effects of the attack must've been wearing off. Suddenly the ground began to shake.

The Gazimon that had been tunneling shot up into the air and exclaimed, "Have a nice trip Blondie, Pitfall!"

Tentomon turned to it and exclaimed, "Super Shocker!"

It hit the Gazimon directly with a bolt of lightning. It cried out in pain.

Salamon jumped up and exclaimed, "Puppy Howling!"

Sending another loud bark at the Gazimon it cringed Terriermon jumped up and exclaimed, "Bunny Blast!"

It fired another ball of energy at Gazimon. It screamed and was turned into Data which Terriermon absorbed.

Ben slowly tried to walk across the ground, but when he was almost to safety it collapsed.

He cried out, "Help me!

He just barely grabbed onto a small ledge on the tunnel wall, I could see his hand.

"Ben," I yelled, "Hold on!"

He screamed back, "I totally want!"

I grunted, 'Oh man,' I thought to myself, 'Carson's gonna kill me if he dies!'

Suddenly I heard a crack and Ben yelled.

I screamed, "Ben!"

The paralyses wore off and I dashed towards him! I swiped for his hand, but missed. I watched as he quickly fell into the dark pit.

I fell to my knees, "No!" I exclaimed punching the ground.

Just then Tentomon dove into the pit yelling, "I'm coming Ben!"

A bright red light shot up out of the pit, and when it disappeared hovering over the edge of the cliff was Tentomon trying with all of his might to hold on to Ben.

I took Ben and set him onto the ground. He looked at me and grinned.

He watched me and said, "Carson would've killed you if I had died."

I smiled and nodded, "Yeah buddy."

I rubbed his head. Suddenly his left wrist began to glow a bright red light and when it was gone in its place was a shiny dark red Digivice.

Ben gazed at it, "I'm a Tamer!" He said with excitement, "I'm a Tamer to Tentomon!"

Tentomon and hugged and laughed. Jessica and I grinned.

Soon we had decided it was time to check the fridge.

"Wait," Ben said. "What if something pops out and attacks us?"

Jessica swallowed, "Ben's right, I'm not opening that thing." She said. Everyone looked away.

I sighed, "Fine," I said, "I'll do it."

Jessica hugged me, "My hero." She said sarcastically.

I blushed.

Ben watched me curiously, "I didn't think people could turn that red. You look kinda sick Matt." He said.

"Hey! Is there a problem with red?" Tentomon asked.

"No," Ben said putting his hands up in defense, "I swear, I didn't mean anything by it."

I laughed. "Okay," I said, taking in a breath, "Here I go."

I pulled the white door open. Everyone backed up. I stuck my head inside. I looked around, but what I saw wasn't food or drinks, it was a city. My Digivice began to beep, and the map showed up, I was right on top of Junction City.

I looked at my friends and with a huge grin on my face said, "You guys are not going to believe this."


	4. Chapter 4

I stepped down into the fridge; whatever it was propped against had slanted it. There was a smooth stone slide directly below me. I turned back to my friends,

"So are you coming or do I have to save the Digital World all by myself?" I asked.  
>Terriermon jumped onto my shoulder and exclaimed,<br>"I'm with you Matt!"

"We're with you too!" Tentomon exclaimed. Ben nodded in agreement.

"Well then," I said, "What about you princess?" I asked Jessica mockingly.

"Matt," she said with a smile on her face, "Never call me princess again!" She exclaimed shoving me through the refrigerator door.

I laughed as I slid down and tumbled onto the ground. I stood up, "Look at this place!" I said to Terriermon.

The entire city seemed to be suspended in mid-air with train tracks leading off of the floating island in any direction you could imagine. The desert had definitely continued into the area. Tufts of grass occasionally sprouted from the dry dirt and sand that composed the ground. It was broad daylight but two moons, one green and one pink moon elegantly shared the deep blue sky with the burning sun.

"This place is insane!" I exclaimed, walking out into the bright sunlight.

"Yeah, but it's just as hot as before." Ben said.

As we walked into the train station we passed by vendors in stalls selling food, toys, and tickets. That's when I saw on the side of a restaurant, a poster depicting Carson and a blue Digimon. He was wearing a blue Digivice.

"Guys," I exclaimed, calling my friends over from a Digimon that looked like a red eggplant, "You've gotta check this out!"

They examined the poster, "Well," Jessica said, "Looks like we know where we're heading next."

"No Jess!" Ben interrupted, "Gennai told us that we were supposed to be going to the Tree of New Beginnings, what if Carson's head there too?!"

"But Ben, if we want to find him, going to the…" She paused to read the name of the city, "Coliseum City, is our best chance of finding someone who has seen him!"

"Jessica is right," Tentomon said, "But we might not be going anywhere together, Elecmon only gave us two tickets remember, I'm sure that means that Ben and Matt will have to use those, hopefully the Trailmon will be kind enough to let us all come along."

"I didn't think about that!" Terriermon said.

The Eggplant Digimon waved us over, "Excuse me," He said, "Not to be an eavesdropper but I couldn't help but over hear your dilemma. My name is RedVegiemon." He said.

My Digivice began beeping, and a hologram of the Red eggplant Digimon. He had two long red vines emitting from the sides of his body, at the end of each vine was a light green spiky fruit. He appeared to be walking with the vines.

"RedVegiemon," I read, "Champion Level, Virus type, Special Attacks: Red Hot Machine Gun, Red Thorn, and Hazard Breath."

"So," Salamon asked, "How do you plan to help us?"

"Well," RedVegiemon said, "An…associate of mine is very interested in making sure you and your friends stick together. He has asked me to make sure your journey to find your friends goes as smoothly as possible. Please take this ticket, and be sure to take NecroTrailmon, he'll take you anywhere you wanna go!"

He handed us a black ticket with gold vines flowing across it.

"Well thanks," I said, "Oh, so you're friends with Gennai?"

"Gennai, of course!" He said with a laugh, "What Digimon isn't friends with Gennai?! Well, you kids had better be of your train is about to leave!"

"Thank you RedVegiemon!" Jessica said.

"Oh there's no need to thank me, I was simply following orders." He replied.

We quickly spotted a train whose body pattern, matched that of the ticket.

"Are you NecroTrailmon?" Terriermon asked.

The large train had one glowing red eye. When he closed it, it looked like a power-on symbol.

"So," NecroTrailmon began, "You are the ones I'm supposed to take today?"

We nodded, "Well then, please, place your tickets in my mouth."

We did as NecroTrailmon asked, and he tooted his horn loudly. The doors on the side of his body opened, and we walked inside. The flooring was a gold colored carpet, and the seats were jet black leather. Each of the long seats was placed up against either of the walls of the cabin. There were three seat belts on each seat.

"Whenever you children are ready," NecroTrailmon's voice boomed, "We will depart."

Just then a Digimon dressed in a trench coat and hat walked in, he was carrying a black cane, which he walked with. His face was not hidden, it was bright red. It appeared to have markings and tattoos on it. Its large nose came to a sharp looking point.

"Good evening," The Digimon said, tipping his hat to us, and flashing a smile filled with pearly white sharply pointed teeth.

I smiled awkwardly at him, something about him made me feel uneasy. "Good evening sir." I said back.

He went and sat near the back of the cabin.

"NecroTrailmon," The Digimon exclaimed, "let's get this show on the freakin' road; I've got worlds to rule!'

I turned to Jessica, "Something tells me that RedVegiemon wasn't working for Gennai."

She nodded at me.

"And something tells me, that he just royally screwed us over!" Terriermon said.

"Let's get the heck off of this train!" Ben exclaimed.

As we tried to rush off of the train, the doors slammed closed, and that's when we heard it. That dark cackling, the same one we had heard that night at camp. I flashed back to the woods.

Suddenly the Train pulled off at full speed, taking sharp turns, and steep drops. I screamed as I was flung into one of the walls of the cabin. As we began to hit another drop, the force of gravity threw me up to the ceiling. I could barely turn my head enough to see Jessica yelling.

Suddenly the laugh resonated again, and the Digimon's eyes began to glow red, it was definitely the same monster from camp. He laughed loudly,

"Oh you stupid, stupid brats," He slammed his cane onto the ground, and suddenly turned into a trident that glowed red. "Have I got a show for you!"

The only lights were the glow of our Digivices and his Trident and eyes. The train began doing corkscrews; the constant battering of my body was causing me to fade in and out of consciousness. As we hit another enormous drop I saw Terriermon and Tentomon, and Ben all floating unconscious in midair.

Jessica looked barely conscious, and holding her head in pain she yelled, "Matt, look out he's coming!"

Suddenly the Digimon tore off its trench coat to reveal a pair of red bat wings with purple skin on them and a long thin tail with an arrow at the end of it. It entire body was blood red. It had intricate black markings cared all over its body. Each of its arms and legs were muscular with three fingers with jet black finger nails on each hand. Its feet appeared to be jester's shoes, with a small jet black orb at the tip of each one. Two short horns jutted from the top of its bald head.

Suddenly the train flipped upside down. I blacked out shortly when I hit the ground, or ceiling, after having been thrown around so many times I wasn't sure what was up and what was down. My Digivice began to beep and a hologram of the Digimon appeared.

"Oh how rude of me," The Digimon said, "I, am Boogeymon, the next King of Both the Human and Digital Worlds!" He pointed his Trident inches away from my throat. I gasped.

Boogeymon smiled, "You Matt, will have the honor of being the first of your little band of brats to die by my hand."

I tried to move but he placed a foot on my forehead, and held me down.

He sighed, "You are pathetic, come on, wipe the fear from your face, and die with dignity!"

From behind him, a green light glowed, and the words, "Terrier Tornado!" Split through the dead silence.

A brightly glowing green tornado illuminated the cabin, and ripped Boogeymon's Trident from his hands. He growled angrily.

"Why do you, villains always have to make trouble for me?!" He exclaimed.

"Villains," Jessica asked, half consciously, "You w-were trying to kill our friend!" She exclaimed, standing shakily to her feet.

"It was a kindness," Boogeymon said, "I was saving him the horror of listening to your screams as I tortured you! I see that as mercy! I thought to myself," He said, kicking me into a wall nearby, and moving towards Jessica. "I could kill him, slowly, and give them all something to think about, but what kind of Digimon would that make me, right?"

He reached out and grabbed Terriermon by the neck, and squeezed. He could barely scream.

"Terriermon, I'm coming!" I exclaimed, rushing at Boogeymon, his Trident smacked me across the head.

"Oh," He said innocently, "Didn't I tell you, I don't have to be holding my Trident to control it. I can use my mind!"

My head was pounding; I was in so much pain.

"Now that you've really made me angry, we're gonna play a little game, whoever can scream the loudest, gets to die last!" He said, grabbing his hovering Trident.

"I guess you're my first contestant Terriermon, so, let's play!"

He began driving his Trident into Terriermon's chest. He cried out in pain.

"Please stop!" I exclaimed.

"Stay down; it's not your turn yet!" He said, "Ruby Eye!" His eyes began to glow again, suddenly my eyes began to burn, and my head began to hurt, the pain quickly intensified, I cried out in pain. It felt as if my eyes were on fire, and someone was driving a spike through my brain.

"Matt, please hold on!" Terriermon said, "Stop hurting him!"

Jessica was curled up in a ball.

"Please," I yelled, "Please stop this!"

Boogeymon laughed, "Well, it looks like Matt's winning! Isn't this fun?!"

His eyes stopped glowing and the pain began to slowly leave, I fell onto my face.

"Well, who's next," He paused, methodically examining us, "How about you beautiful?" He said to Jessica.

"No please, please!" She exclaimed, with tears streaming down her face.

"Sledge Dash!" Salamon exclaimed, but Boogeymon caught her head, and began to squeeze Salamon yelled in pain. He smiled, and threw her into Tentomon, sending them both reeling into a wall of the cabin.

"Tentomon are you okay?!" Ben asked, shakily.

There was no reply.

Boogeymon took a deep breath, "I should start playing with you kids more often!" He exclaimed with an insane cackle.

"So," He said kicking Terriermon away, and turning to face Jessica, "Let's make some music, Ruby Eye!"

His eyes began to glow Red again, and Jessica dropped to her knees. She shrieked in agony, cradling her body in a fetal position on the floor of the cabin.

"Please stop it!" Jessica screamed.

Boogeymon appeared to be dancing swaying his arms, as if someone were playing him music.

"Boogeymon," I said, trying to muster enough energy to stand up. "Stop it; she didn't do anything to you!"

He laughed at me, "That's all you've got kid?" He shook his head, and continued to dance.

"Stop it." I said.

"That's enough Boogeymon!" I said.

He continued to ignore me. That's when I felt it, as if all the anger in my soul had resonated into my body. I snapped.

"Stop hurting her, now Boogeymon!" I screamed, letting the rage flow through me.

"What the heck is that?" Boogeymon exclaimed.

Something was glowing, a bright green. I looked down at my body, my Fractal Code had reappeared. It was as if all of my energy had returned, I felt no pain, only anger. Jessica had stopped screaming, when Boogeymon looked away. She watched me.

"I've had enough!" I yelled.

I watched as Terriermon stood up, seemingly fully healed.

"Matt," Terriermon yelled, "Use your Digivice!"

I quickly swiped my Fractal Code over my Digivice three times.

"Digivolve!" I yelled.

"What?!" Boogeymon exclaimed.

I watched as the word Digivolution appeared on the screen of my Digivice.

A stream of data from the Digivice engulfed Terriermon's body taking the form of an egg.

"Terriermon Digivolve to….Gargomon!" I heard Terriermon exclaim.

When the data egg shattered a completely different Digimon appeared.

"Terriermon, what the heck happened to you?" I asked.

The new Digimon was much bigger than Terriermon, probably somewhere around six feet tall. Its ears were much larger now, half of each ear was green, and the other half was tan. On its forehead was a red diamond shape tattoo. Its hands were giant Gatling guns, and it wore a belt of ammunition diagonally across its chest and back. Its eyes and mouth were the same. Its feet were much larger; it had three large black talons jutting from its feet. It wore a pair of D-VI'S 503xx jeans with the pant legs rolled up slightly.

The Digimon looked at me with a grin, "I'm not Terriermon anymore Matt, I'm Gargomon now, I digivolved!"

"How did you figure out digivolution so quickly?!" Boogeymon screeched.

"Well Boogeymon, I guess you've learned not to piss me off, and not to hurt my friends!" I yelled.

Gargomon lunged at Boogeymon, and with one of its Gatling gun hands, punched him through the side of the cabin. I ran to the hole in the cabin wall.

"What the heck is going on back there; that hurt!" NecroTrailmon exclaimed, coming to a grinding halt.

"Everyone out; now!" He exclaimed.

Jessica picked up Salamon and staggered over to the hole, "What just happened Matt?"

"Ya got me?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Out now!" NecroTrailmon yelled, tipping on its side. I fell through the hole.

"What is wrong with this place?!" I exclaimed as I fell.

I crashed into water, and Ben, Jessica and Salamon, and Tentomon followed soon after.

"That guy just screwed himself out of a tip!" Ben exclaimed.

I spotted Gargomon fighting Boogeymon on the shore.

"Gargo Lasers!" He exclaimed, firing his Gatling guns at Boogeymon.

A myriad of emotions fought for control of Boogeymon's face.

Gargomon rushed at Boogeymon, and punched him across the face, and turned around, and jabbed him in the stomach. He spun back around and uppercut Boogeymon's head.

"Bunny Pummel!" Gargomon exclaimed.

Boogeymon fell to the ground.

"This is a load of crap! You must be kidding me, no one can defeat me!" Boogeymon exclaimed.

He yelled at the top of his lungs and spread his arms apart. Suddenly, several portals appeared. Each depicted a different area, one of which was a grassy plain and an enormous tree.

"We'll meet again kiddies, watch your backs!" Boogeymon said, jumping into a portal depicting nothing but darkness.

"There's the Tree of Beginnings guys, come on let's go before the portal closes!" I yelled.

I sprinted at the portal and threw myself through it. The wind was knocked out of me, and the world went dark.

I sat up with a start. I looked around, Ben, Tentomon, and Gargomon were lying on the ground next to me, but Jessica and Salamon were nowhere in sight. I sat up holding my head in my hands. We appeared to be inside some kind of cavern, and a small lake of dark, murky water lay calmly in front of us, light emanated from it.

"Dang," Ben said, "It feels like someone just Bass dropped my brain."

"You're telling me," I replied, sighing as I forced to myself to my feet.

"It's so dark in here." Gargomon said.

"Alright," I said, "Tentomon and Gargomon, the two of you try to find a way out of here, while Ben and I check out that lake."

"We're on it!" Tentomon said, flying off.

Gargomon investigated the wall.

"Matt it's just rocks; I bet I could break through it!"

"No Gargomon, wait," I exclaimed, but it was too late; Gargomon fired his Gargo Laser attack at the cave wall.

The cave shook and boulders fell from the ceiling, crashing to the ground all around us, and into the murky lake.

Gargomon stopped he shrugged his shoulders, and smiled apologetically.

"Yeah," I said to him, "Let's not do that again."

He nodded, and went back to investigating the wall.

Ben was studying the lake.

"What's up man?" I asked him.

"It's the lake, it's like there's some kind of underwater cave down there, when the boulder dropped in, it cleared away some of the muck at the top. The waters crystal clear down there, but it's as cold as ice!" He said.

"So what, you think that's the way out?" I asked him, as Gargomon and Tentomon crowded around the two of us.

"Maybe," Ben replied, "But that water's way too cold to swim in, and if the temperature doesn't kill us, we'd run out of breath before we even got close to anything down there."

Suddenly the cave began to shake again. Stalactites and boulders began to fall from the ceiling.

"Gargomon, what'd I tell you?" I yelled over the rumbling, attempting to dodge the falling rocks.

"Matt it's not me this time, I swear!"

A gaping hole appeared in the side of the rock wall, and water began to quickly flow through it. Another followed, and another. Soon I was up to my knees in freezing cold water. Two Digimon emerged from two of the now many holes.

My body began to shake uncontrollably. Before I knew it, Ben and I were swimming.

"Who are those guys?" I asked between chattering teeth.

My Digivice began to glow; I pulled my left arm out of the water. I attempted to tread with only one arm, I failed, I had never been a strong swimmer. Worse yet, Ben was freaking out, and flailing his arms, he was afraid of water.

"Matt," He yelled as his head bobbed going under the water, and popping back up again, "Help me!"

The water was almost to the ceiling of the cavern now. My body was beginning to lock up from the cold.

The quadruped Digimon had white fur covering its underbelly and legs. The top of its body was a bright purple. There appeared to be some kind of large metal drill protruding from the front its face, its eyes were a deep gray.

"They're Drimogemon!" Tentomon said, flying over us.

Gargomon swam over to Ben, and attempted to hold him up. He huddled close to him.

I felt tired, before I could do anything about it, I was floating to the bottom of the cavern. The cold covered my body like a blanket of ice. It was as if my body had given up before my mind or spirit. It didn't take long for them to follow though. As I floated down, feeling the water flood into me, I thought to myself.

"I can't die here," Almost as if the Digital World itself were trying to tell me something, memories flooded my mind.

I remembered a time that Carson and I were wrapped up in blankets watching Christmas Specials on TV over our Winter Break from school. It snowed harder than ever that night in Bloomington, but we were safe and warm inside my house.

I felt a little bit warmer now.

Another memory flashed across my mind, going to Disney World down in Florida for the first time, when I was five. It had been so hot that day. I could clearly see my parents, sweat dripping down their faces, pushing my baby sister in a stroller, and running to keep up with me, as I sprinted towards a man dressed as Peter Pan.

I could move my fingers again, and soon my whole body was reacting normally again.

Then the memory of fighting alongside Terriermon appeared, it was as if I were watching the whole battle unfold again. I remembered how strong I had felt, when we worked together. I remembered finally defeating ShadowToyAgumon. I hadn't let Terriermon down. I knew that if the circumstances had been different, he wouldn't let me be down here drowning like this.

A rush of warmth filled my body, as if the water temperature around me had spontaneously changed. I felt hot. I could see underwater, and not only that, but I wasn't drowning. That's when I realized, the thoughts of my friends had distracted me from the fact that I thought that I was drowning. They had given me enough strength to keep fighting. As long as I didn't believe that I was drowning I wouldn't drown.

I continued to allow the memories of my friends to flash across my mind.

As I swam towards Ben, Tentomon, and Gargomon, all of whom now were sinking to the bottom of the cavern. I thought of the first time that I had met Landon, and then soon after, had seen my first real Digimon.

I touched Ben.

"Ben," I said, as if the thought had permeated my mind, "Come on man, you've gotta wake up."

His eyes fluttered open, and blankly rolled up to me.

"Think warm thoughts man!" I said with a smile.

Gargomon swam over to me, as if the fact that I was surviving the ordeal, allowed him to survive it as well.

"Warm….thoughts." Ben mouthed.

I watched as his eyes suddenly opened widely, he thrashed around for a second, attempting to get his mind under control again.

"I can't believe this," I heard his voice say, "we should be dead right now, but, we're both alive, and breathing underwater no less!"

"The Digital World," I said, remembering Elecmon's words, "There's no place like it."

Ben nodded, and Tentomon awkwardly swam over to us.

"Let's get out of here," Gargomon said, "It's getting too hot for my taste."

I chuckled, and together we swam down into the very bottom of the cavern. It was as if the water in the cave and the water in the lake were being separated by some kind of invisible wall. The lake water was clear. Something shined at the bottom of it, near the entrance to another small cave.

"Let's check it out!" Ben said, swimming down to the shining object.

We followed closely behind him.

He picked up the object a small brown crystal acorn.

"Where do you think this came from?" I asked.

"I've got no idea." Gargomon said.

His body began to glow, and he de-digivolved to Terriermon.

"Maybe there's something in that cave over there!" Tentomon said.

We swam into it. A bright mural depicting an enormous tree was at the end of the cave. Light appeared to be flooding into the cave from it.

A large dark brown oval shaped basket filled with hay sat elegantly under the mural.

"So what," I asked, "We put the Acorn into the basket?"

"No," Ben said examining the mural, "The mural shows that basket holding some kind of egg. But here, it's filled with these acorns. Now, if you look closely you'll see that there are people standing next to the egg. In fact, I think those people might be us Matt!"

I swam over to investigate. The mural depicted six humans, all equipped with Digivices, guarding the egg from purple monsters on the edges of the mural. Behind the tree, the sky appeared to be night time. In fact, the stars all appeared to be acorns.

"So maybe our Digivices, and those acorns, are connected, if you look, the light from the acorns, shines down on the basket of these crystal acorns underneath us." I said.

"Do you think that you're Digivices can be used to solve this," Terriermon asked, "You know, like when you fixed Elecmon's house!"

"Maybe that light that came from your Digivice imitates what the sun it doing to the acorns in the mural! If you point your Digivices at the Acorns in the basket, the light will bounce from each of the acorns to a different point in the room!"

I shrugged, "It's worth a shot." I said.

Ben and I swam down in front of the basket full of acorns. We pointed our Digivices at them, summoned our Fractal Codes, and swiped them over our Digivices. A beam of light shot from each of our Digivices, and hit the basket of acorns. The beams bounced from the basket of acorns, and hit the Acorns on the mural. They shined as if they were stars. There was still one star that stayed unlit.

"Tentomon," Ben said, "Take this and put it into the basket."

"Okay, but it's not a basket." Tentomon said.

"Well what is it then?" I asked.

"It's a cradle." Tentomon said, dropping the last acorn into the last crystal acorn into the cradle.

A final beam of light shot from it, and hit the last acorn. There was a rumbling, and several loud clicking noise, and the mural began to crack. It shattered to pieces, and a portal appeared where it had been.

I grinned, "Guys," I said, "Let's go find our friends."

As we began to swim towards the portal, the two Drimogemon appeared. We swam as fast as we could, but they followed us through the portal. There was a flash of light, and the world around us appeared to stretch. Soon I was standing in a giant field. An enormous tree was behind me. It was bigger than anything I had ever seen. Thousands of feet tall, and wide enough that it looked as if it would take up my whole street at home.

"This must be the Tree of New Beginnings!" I said.

"It's bigger than anything I've ever seen!" Ben exclaimed.

"So that portal brought us here?" Gargomon asked.

"It would appear that way," Tentomon replied, "But what about the Drimogemon?"

A low growl overlapped the sound of breeze blowing.

"That would be them." Gargomon replied.

I summoned my Fractal Code, but as I was about to swipe it over my Digivice, I heard a voice behind me.

"That's enough Drimogemon, they're guest!" A woman's voice said.

The two Drimogemon grunted, and began drilling into the ground. Soon they were both gone.

"Thanks lady, I really appreciate it!" I said turning around to see a Swan like Digimon flanked on the left and right by Landon, Nathan, Armadillomon, and a Bird Digimon.

Our Digivices went off; a small hologram of the bird Digimon appeared on my Digivice.

"Hawkmon," I read, "Rookie Level, Attribute N/A, Special Attacks: Feather Slash and Beak Pecker!"

"Swanmon," Ben read, "Ultimate Level, Vaccine Type, Special Attacks: Feather Tornado and White Marie."

"Long time no see," Landon said.

Ben and I smiled.

"Welcome to the Village of New Beginnings." Swanmon said.

"It's good to see you guys again; and Matt," Nathan said, "There's no need to gloat; we all know that you were right."

A yellow Digivice decorated his left wrist.


	5. Chapter 5: The Tree of Beginnings

Chapter 5 

The large circular kitchen we were sitting in was dimly illuminated by red and green lights which seemed to cover the ceiling above us. A single candle sat in the middle of the long banquet table. The walls were painted look like a field of flowers. A buffet of food was spread across the table.

"Tell us again Matt!" Hawkmon squawked.

"So," I said, "Here I am, at the bottom of a lake, thinking that I'm about to die."

"So what happened next?" Armadillomon asked, between a mouthful of apple.

"Well, all these memories started flashing through my head, and the next thing I know, I'm breathing underwater!" I exclaimed.

I popped piece of fish into my mouth.

Landon sat next to Armadillomon cooking a meat apple over a small fire.

"So," Nathan asked, "You swim to the bottom of the lake, and found that giant window. You put the acorns in the basket, and end up here? This place is crazy man!"

I nodded, "But that's what worries me Nate, we're still missing Carson, and Jessica, was just gone after fought Boogeymon."

"Those portals must've transported her somewhere else." Hawkmon said.

"Possibly," Landon replied, "But then why did it send all of you guys here?"

"Unless," Nathan added, "the portal closed before she and Salamon made it through."

A door opened behind us, and Terriermon, Swanmon, Tentomon, and Ben walked in.

"We just put all of the babies to sleep, and checked on the eggs." Terriermon said, hopping up into the chair closest to me.

The rest of the group settled in at the table, and began to eat. As I went to put a sushi roll into my mouth, I noticed Ben glumly playing with a cherry tomato on his plate.

"Ben…?" I asked.

He looked up just long enough for me to see his puffy red eyes.

"What's wrong man?" Landon asked.

"I'm worried about my brother." Ben said through sniffles.

"I'm sure that he's alright Ben!" Swanmon replied.

"Unless he got eaten by a giant seven-mouthed, dragon, spider-fiend that spits acid….and cupcakes, I like cupcakes." Terriermon said, climbing around that table, and making faces.

I grabbed him and pulled him back into his seat, "That's not helping doofus."

"I'm just saying!" He said, pulling away from me.

"Ben's right," Nathan replied, "We've got to go find Carson and Jessica."

I nodded, "Unless they find us first."

Suddenly the tree began to rock, and deafening explosions could be heard.

"What's happening," I yelled over the sound of the explosions.

I clamored towards the door, as the roof began to collapse.

We rushed out of the room, and down the hallway. The tree seemed to be falling apart.

"You kids get out of here, I'm going to go try and save some of the little ones!" Swanmon yelled.

"Ben take Tentomon, and go help Swanmon!" I said. He nodded.

The rest of the group rushed down a nearby staircase, as the tree began to burn.

I looked put a window just long enough to see the figures of four creatures. Three of them a appeared to be tigers made entirely out of fire, and I had a hunch as to who the fourth one was.

"Get ready for a fight guys!" I yelled, trying to avoid burning debris falling from the ceiling. We watched as a large section of the ceiling fell and blocked off our only route of escape.

"It doesn't ever get any easier does it?" Landon asked, coughing heavily.

"Nope," I replied, trying to breathe through the smoke.

"It looks like we've got to make a new exit," Terriermon yelled, "Bunny Blast!"

The blast of energy tore a hole in the wall of the tree, and we looked out in time to see just how high up we were.

"We're not gonna survive a fall from this height!" Nathan yelled, as a large chunk of the tree collapsed behind us.

"No problem," Terriermon replied, "I'll glide everyone down. I can only take one person at a time though, and I'll need Hawkmon to fly me back up here!"

"Let's do it!" Hawkmon replied.

"Come one guys," Armadillomon exclaimed anxiously, "It's getting hot up here!"

"Landon first," I said, "You're gonna jump out of the window, and grab Terriermon by his legs!"

Landon nodded.

Terriermon ran out of the window, with Hawkmon right behind him. Landon darted out behind him, hopped, and grabbed him by the legs. We anxiously watched as Terriermon glided to the ground below us. Landon dropped off a couple feet above the ground. Hawkmon grabbed Terriermon, and flew him back up. We repeated the procedure with Nathan.

"Alright Armadillomon, you're next!" I yelled.

He sprinted out of the hole, curled himself into a ball, and rolled down the side of the tree. I sighed, and chuckled to myself. The grounds under me began to break apart, and the ceiling was falling out faster. The tree was collapsing.

"Hurry guys!" I yelled.

I watched as Hawkmon flapped his wings furiously, trying to get to me. The floor behind me collapsed, and I threw myself through the hole. I was falling quickly. I tried to reach for Terriermon and Hawkmon as I passed them, and missed by a long shot.

I grunted, and braced myself. Suddenly, I felt Terriermon grab me, and my descent was heavily slowed. I sighed with relief.

"Are you stupid or something?" He asked me angrily.

"Nope," I replied, "I just don't like being turned into human barbecue."

Terriermon dropped me and I hit the ground. I shook my head, "I'll get you back for that one."

"You're dang right you will!" He exclaimed.

The group ran as fast as we could, around the tree, until we could see two unconscious Drimogemon, lying in the field. My Digivice began to beep.

"Those three flaming things are called, Lynxmon. Champion Level, Vaccine Type, Special Attacks: Thermal Buster and Wild Nail Rush." I said.

"So they've got four Champions, and we've got one." Landon replied.

"We're gonna have to make due." Nathan said.

We rushed out towards the three Lynxmon, and the other Digimon whom I could now clearly see was Boogeymon. Boogeymon was cackling loudly.

"Burn baby burn!" It exclaimed.

"Why Lynxmon," Boogeymon said turning to face us, "It would appear that our little egg-fry isn't enough, someone sent us some fresh meat too. Do me a favor, and slaughter them, I like my meat medium rare."

The three Lynxmon roared, and darted towards us. One of them pinned me to the ground. It roared in my face; its breath smelled like burning garbage. My Digivice began to beep. I punched the Lynxmon in its nose. I staggered backwards, and I kicked it in the face.

I focused, and summoned my Fractal Code. I quickly swiped it over my Digivice. I rushed towards Terriermon, who was helping Armadillomon fight off another Lynxmon. A stream of Data flowed from my Digivice, and engulfed him in a large egg. When the egg shattered apart, Gargomon appeared.

"I've never liked cats Gargomon; get rid of them for me!" I exclaimed.

"I'm on it!" Gargomon exclaimed, dashing towards the Lynxmon that had attacked me, and smashing it into the still burning Tree of Beginnings. It roared defiantly at him. He placed his other Gatling gun hand to its head, and exclaimed, "Gargo Lasers!"

There was yelp, and Gargomon dropped the body of the Lynxmon to the ground, absorbing the data coming from its body.

"Do you see Lynxmon?" Boogeymon exclaimed, "How our Digimon brothers and sisters are but Lambs to the slaughter for the barbaric humans. This is why they must be eliminated!"

"You're the one trying to torture and kill children!" Nathan yelled back.

"Children…" Boogeymon yelled, "You're murders! You treat your Digimon partners like they're your slaves!"

"At least we don't burn down nurseries!" Landon yelled back.

"These children have died for a noble cause, so that the true king of the Digital World may once again sit upon his throne!"

"That's it," I exclaimed, "I've had enough of this conceited psychopath; let's finish this, here and now!"

Gargomon rushed at Boogeymon, while the other Digimon held off the two Lynxmon. He grabbed him by the throat, and began to smash him into the ground.

"Gargomon's so fast!" Landon exclaimed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ben, Tentomon, and Swanmon pulling dozens of wagons full of Fresh Level Digimon and Digi-Eggs out of the tree. One of the eggs fell out of its cart, as they finally pulled them carts clear of the burning tree.

"I'll get it!" Swanmon yelled.

"No, Swanmon, it's too dangerous!"

Swanmon darted towards the egg, but it appeared as if one of her wings had been damaged. I watched her try to pick up the egg. There was a loud crack, and suddenly, the tree collapsed on top of her.

"No!" Ben yelled.

My body was overwhelmed with hatred for Boogeymon. I ran towards Gargomon, who now had Boogeymon pinned to the ground, and was continually punching him in the face. The other Lynxmon were both gone.

I looked down at the dazed monster.

"I want you to look at me," I said kneeling down next to Boogeymon, "After all that you've done to me; to my friends…" I said calmly.

"I won't forgive you for what you did here today." I said.

Suddenly the portals appeared again.

"You can run, but not for long, mark my words I will kill you." I said, stepping on his face.

Gargomon dropped him to the ground. There was a rush of air, and suddenly Boogeymon was gone.

"What's wrong with you?!" Landon said shoving me to the ground.

"Why didn't you finish him off?" He asked.

"I want Boogeymon to fear me, and he does. So now, we're going to make sure that these Digimon, and the Digi-Eggs are safe, we're going to find our friends…"I said, throwing him off of me.

"Then, I'm gonna kill him." I said, walking off towards the woods; I didn't want my friends to see me cry.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I thrashed my way through the dark underbrush of the constricting forest, breathing in more rage with each step. I couldn't breathe, and it felt as if the surrounding darkness were caging me. I ran until my legs finally gave out. I cried out, punching the trunk of a tree, and pitching myself to the ground beneath it. I sighed hard, as hot tears flowed from my eyes.

"I hate you!" I yelled out Boogeymon.

As if he could hear me, as if the whole Digital World could hear me.

"What have we done to you?" I asked, panting heavily.

"Answer me?" I yelled again, and once again I was greeted with a stark silence.

I sat at the base of the tree balling myself at its feet, like a distraught child to its mother, her voice hoarse with rage.

"They didn't deserve that." I said to myself.

I felt my fingernails begin to cut into my hands, as I clinched my fists. My jaw hurt, as I gritted my teeth with frustration, and I imagined my eyes were now a dark pink from salty tears. Surrounded by nothing but uncertainty I felt such a profound sense of loneliness. I wished more than anything that Carson was here.

"Carson," I sighed to myself, "Where are you man?"

This world was quickly beginning to show us its true colors, an existence rooted strongly in one, and only one ideal, survival of the fittest. Boogeymon seemed to have such a strong grasp on this lone law that he could manipulate it, and mutate it into something all his own, something twisted – _sadistic_.

'I can't beat him alone.' I thought to myself.

'I need you.'

I began to shiver, my pores rising fiercely as rage began to shift to crushing fear. In my mind I kept flashing back to the fight on the train, the stabbing, searing pain that Boogeymon was able to fill my whole being with, using only a flick of his wrist. That kind of power, matched with an insanity that seemed exclusive to him alone, was truly a force of fear that I had never wanted to experience.

Suddenly I was flooded with a barrage of fears, as the darkness of the forest began to creep in. I wondered if anyone at home has noticed that we were gone. I wondered if I would ever see Carson again. I wondered if we would ever live to see home again. The fear of the loss of my own life seemed to be the least asphyxiating, no; much more suffocating was the fear of watching my friends suffering. The realization was shocking to me.

There was something else as well, something that made my heart ache down to its very core; a burning, sickening hatred. As it began to settle, I came to settle on one, single thought. I would kill him. I would kill Boogeymon, even if it cost my own life. I would do it for my friends, and for the Digital World. _I would do it_.

I looked down, at my filthy hands, blackened in patches by the dirt, and wiped my burning eyes. I was tired, albeit angry, but still tired; and the racing of my own heart became a lulling melody. Teeth gritted, blanketed only by the darkness of the forest, I slowly fell asleep.

I was plagued by nightmare after nightmare; each more gruesome, more twisted than the last. From watching Boogeymon turn our home world into a tundra of desolation, to watching my friends and family tortured, all the while I was forced to listen to that demented cackle. I sat bolt upright, with my fingers securely wrapped around someone's throat.

My eyes widen, partially from shock, and partially from the sunlight cutting through the cracks between the overhead leaves and canopy. Nathan's hands snapped up to his throat, he panted, and massaged it.

"What's wrong with you dude?" He exclaimed.

"I'm sorry." I said sheepishly.

I was surrounded by my friends.

"Matt," Terriermon said, hopping up onto my shoulder, "We spent all night looking for you; I thought you were lost or worse!" He wrapped his long ears around me.

"We thought that Boogeymon came back for round two." Landon said, standing up from the stump that he was sitting on.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

I nodded, "I'm sorry that I ran off last night, I just needed time alone to think."

He sighed, "Alright then," He gestured back the way that I assumed they had come through in order to find me, "We've still got a job to do."

I helped Nathan to his feet, "Let's go finish this." I said.

I hadn't realized just how deep into the forest that I had trekked last night. It took us close to two hours of excruciatingly mundane battles with the forests underbrush to finally get back to the still smoldering ashes of the Tree of New Beginnings. Sunlight clothed the grim scene, as a soft, warm breeze seemed to lift up, and spread a bit of the Tree's ashes with each breath.

"There's gotta be something that we can do about this." Nathan said.

Suddenly I remembered how my Fractal Code had helped to repair Elecmon's house back in the village.

"Maybe there is," I said, "Back in the Village of Beginnings, when I met Terriermon after a fight with a monster called ShadowToyAgumon, I was able to help a friend repair his house that was destroyed using my Fractal Code."

"Hey," Terriermon exclaimed, "That's right! You fixed Old Mon Elecmon's place!"

"So do you think we can do the same thing with the Tree of New Beginnings?" Nathan asked.

"I'm hoping so," I said, pausing, "The thing is, if everything in this world is composed of Data; then this place must be where all of the Data from defeated Digimon gets filtered to be reconfigured, which is why Digi-Eggs appear to grow here!"

"Whoa," Landon said with a sigh, "That's gotta be a ton of Data concentrated on this one area then."

"Do you think that there's any chance that we can repair something like that?" Tentomon asked.

"There are four of us," I said, "That's four Fractal Codes; if we all work together I'm sure that it'll work!"

"If I've learned anything from this crazy trip," Ben began, "It's that when we work together, we're so much stronger than when we're alone."

'He's right,' I thought to myself, 'Look at everything that we've been able to accomplish by working together. That must have been Boogeymon's plan to defeat us all along; to divide and conquer. I had been playing into his hand with my anger, trying to beat him all on my own.'

I clenched my fist, "Let's do it you guys," I said through gritted teeth, "Then we're gonna go find our friends, and we're gonna end this once and for all."

"I'm with you Matt!" Terriermon exclaimed.

"We're all with you man." Landon said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't be so hot headed," He said, punching me lightly, "You don't have to face this thing on your own, we all wanna put Boogeymon down, avenge our friends, and save the Digital World but we have no chance of doing that if we aren't completely together."

I nodded.

The four of us approached the tree, creating a circle around the enormous smoldering wreckage that it had become.

"You guys ready?" I shouted.

"What do we do?" Ben shouted back.

"Bring out your Fractal Codes," I yelled, "Sort of imagine a light, bring back all of the memories that you can about this place, imagine rebuilding it!"

As we all summoned our Fractal Codes, I remembered Swanmon and all of the Digi-Eggs that were destroyed in the fire; I wanted to save each and every one of them.

Suddenly my Fractal Code stretched from my hand beginning to wrap itself upwards around the area the tree would've stood. Landon's and Ben's were doing the same thing, and they began to intertwine with my own, until what stood over the place of smoldering ashes was a giant egg much like the one Terriermon was surrounded by when he digivolved.

The egg shattered apart raining down shards of the silver and blue squares, and in its place stood a new and even bigger Tree than had been there before.

"No way!" I breathed in astonishment.

"We did it!" Ben shouted.

"Heck Yeah!" Landon cheered in agreement.

A large egg appeared to have spawned from the Tree came floating down and lay in the soft grass at my feet. In seconds it had hatched, and it immediately began to absorb the falling shards, it digivolved once, twice, and standing before me was Swanmon.

"I-I'm alive, and not only that," She said fluttering her wings, "But I feel stronger than ever!"

'This is what it really is to be a Digidestined,' I thought to myself, 'To protect not just my friends, and our world but all beings from anyone who would try to harm them.'

"You all did this?" Swanmon said, tears brimming in her eyes.

I sighed in astonishment.

"My Tree," She exclaimed, "It's all fixed up again."

She hurried inside.

"I can't believe that worked! Landon said.

"I've never seen anything like this in all my time!" Tentomon said.

"It's like we have all of the power of the Digital World in our hands." Nathan said.

"This truly is a legendary spectacle!" Hawkmon hooted.

"The eggs are all here too, they've all been saved!" Swanmon shouted from a point high up in the tree.

"You all are truly incredible."Armadillomon said.

"Oh thank you Digidestined," Swanmon said, fluttering back to the ground, "Thank you!"

"Well we couldn't just leave our friend like that could we, all scramblified in who-knows-where, right?" Terriermon exclaimed.

"Never." Ben added.

"Well on behalf of all of the Digimon here, I thank you all. These little ones are so lucky to have friends as good as you." Swanmon said.

"If only we could find our other ones." I muttered.

"I may be able to help with that as well." Swanmon said.

"You mean you know where Carson and Jessica are?" Landon exclaimed.

"No," Swanmon said, "I don't but I have a friend who may. He informed that you all would be coming here soon."

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Are they a human?" Nathan asked.

"Well no not exactly, but he's not a Digimon either, his name is Gennai. He's the Guardian of the Digital World, and I believe he may be the one that can help you all find your friends, defeat Boogeymon, and return home." Swanmon said.

"Are you serious," I asked, "How do we meet this guy?" I asked.

"Can you give us a map or something?" Armadillomon asked.

"No," Swanmon said, "But the Digital World knows what you're looking for, all of you thoughts and emotions every bit of you is encoded in it right now. Being the Digidestined children gives you special benefits; the Digital World will help you in your quest. I promise you you'll find Gennai when you aren't looking for him."

"What is that," Hawkmon asked, "Some kind of riddle?"

"It's more like a failsafe, to ensure the safety of Gennai, if someone like Boogeymon could find him imagine the damage he could do to the Digital World if he were to obtain the knowledge that someone like Gennai has!" Swanmon said.

We nodded.

"He's a very kind person though," Swanmon said, "Gennai will take good care of you and your friends, I promise you that."

I was confused but thanked Swanmon anyways.

"So where should we start looking?" Terriermon asked.

"Remember the only way to find is not to seek," Swanmon replied, "But through the forest may be a good place to start."

I scratched my head, "Well okay then."

"Safe travels," Swanmon said returning to the Tree, "And thank you again!"

We began heading towards the nearest tree line.

"Well that was tons of help." Tentomon said.

"She might as well have written us a road map straight to this Gennai guy's house." Nathan replied.

"Think about it though guys, if Swanmon is pushing us to meet Gennai, then maybe someone somewhere is pushing Carson, Jessica, and their partners to find them too!" Landon said.

"That's ruling out the possibility that they may already be there waiting for us!" I said, moving some hanging tree limbs out of my face.

"Does anyone have any idea where we're going?" Armadillomon asked.

"The way that I see it," I replied, "Swanmon said we must not seek to find what we're looking for; it's sort of like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter it will find you when you need it the most."

"Who's hairy what?" Terriermon asked.

"Harry Potter," Landon said, "He's a character from a book and movie series in our world."

"That's beside the point," I exclaimed, "The point is the way I see it, we've got to get lost to be found."

We pushed through the heavy underbrush of the dark forest for what seemed like hours before we finally decided to rest.

"Well," Hawkmon said, "I'd say we're sufficiently lost."

"I'd agree with that." Nathan said.

"I don't even remember where we're going anymore." Armadillomon said.

"To find that guy," Ben said.

"Janet, we've gotta find Janet!" Terriermon exclaimed.

"Perhaps," An elderly voice said from behind us, "You mean Gennai?"

We turned around to see an old Caucasian man in a regal robe standing off to the left of us.

"My god," I said falling back with surprise.

The man let out a deep laugh, "You a little jumpy there my boy?"

"Who is this guy?" Landon said, quickly shifting into an attack stance.

"I don't like this creep." Terriermon said.

"Well Terriermon," The man said, "Then perhaps this creep won't lead you to your friends."

"Wait a second you're," Ben began.

"Janet," Tentomon exclaimed, "We've finally found you."

"Close," The man said with a chuckle, "My name is Gennai and I am the one you seek."


	7. Chapter 7

"You're Gennai," Hawkmon said, "Funny you're much older than I would've imagined."

"You bite your tongue you little rat with wings," Gennai snapped back, "I'm not a day over..well I'm not old, and you have some respect when you're speaking to me!"

"We're sorry we're sorry!" Nathan pleaded.

"You all found me faster than I thought," Gennai sighed with a shake of his head, "Watching you all bumbling around the Digital World I wasn't sure when to expect you!"

"Sorry we got side tracked," I said clenching my fists, "By that psycho Boogeymon."

"Don't you think that I know that," He said heading back into the forest, "I've been monitoring you all since you first arrived here in the Digital World."

Ben leaned over to me, "What if this is some kind of trick by Boogeymon?"

"Yeah," Terriermon added, "This creep could be leading us into his personal torture chamber, to shove slugs up our noses, or drown us in sour milk or something!"

"Are you coming or not?" Gennai asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Just hold on a second," Ben said, "How do we know that we can trust you?"

"I guess that means you don't want to defeat Boogeymon then do you?" Gennai asked.

"We just want proof that you are who you say you are!" Tentomon said.

Landon nodded in agreement, folding his arms across his chest.

Gennai sighed, face-palming himself.

"Our chocolate colored friend over here," He said gesturing to me, "His name is Matt; both of his parents were born on a small island country in the Caribbean, your favorite color is green, your favorite fruit is Mango, and you love coconut water and coffee flavored candy."

I gasped.

"Big deal," Ben said, nudging me, "So you looked over his Facebook profile?"

Gennai groaned, "When Matt was eight years old, he fell off an inner tube tied to the back of a boat at a lake with his father, and almost accidently drowned the both of them by pushing his father under the water."

"How did you know that?" I shot back.

"I'm the guardian of the Digital World kid; I know everything that you all know."

He paused, "Look," He finally said, "Everything that you are, all of your thoughts, memories, they were all processed into data and formatted the second that you entered the Digital World."

Nathan put a hand on my shoulder, "Let's at least hear him out Matt."

"Yeah," Hawkmon said, "I'm not saying we should let our guards down but after that let's at least see what all of this is about."

I turned to Ben, he shrugged.

"He may be a saggy old guy," Terriermon began, "But I think that if he were gonna try to attack us he would've done it already."

Gennai groaned, "I can hear everything that you all are saying. I'm not some common kidnapper you know?"

"Well that's not disconcerting at all." Nathan replied.

"Alright," I said, "We'll go with you."

"Oh joy," Gennai exclaimed, "Now let's go we're wasting time."

"Jeez," Tentomon said as we pushed through the forest behind Gennai, "Someone must've forgotten to take his vitamins this morning."

"Maybe he needs more fiber in his diet, like your grandpa, huh Landon?" Armadillomon said.

Landon chuckled with embarrassment.

Soon the foliage cleared slightly and we were standing in front of a small hut.

"Welp," Gennai said, stretching himself out with a yawn, "Here we are home sweet home!"

Nathan scratched his face, "You're kidding me right?"

"We searched half of the Digital World, for this mud hut, are we being punked or something?" Ben exclaimed.

"I kinda like it," Tentomon said, flying over and sitting on the stop of the hut, "It's cozy looking!"

"Easy for you to say!" Landon added.

"Well," Gennai shot back, "I'm sorry my home isn't to your liking, we can't all be born with a Chrome Digizoid spoon in our mouths now can we?"

He opened the front door, and pushed inside.

"What the heck is Chrome Digizoid?" Ben asked as we approached the door.

"It's the super metal of the Digital World," I said.

"That stuff is almost indestructible." Terriermon added.

"I've gotta get my hands on some of that before we go home, just think of all of the new inventions I could," Ben paused as we pushed the door open.

"No," Ben sighed, "But this doesn't make sense."

We stepped into the enormous room. The floors were wooden, and lanterns floated in the air just below the ceiling illuminating the room. Gennai sat in a rocking chair in front of a wall of monitors.

"What," He asked, "My computer monitors not nice enough for you either?"

"No," I muttered, "No that's not it at all."

"Gennai," Nathan sighed, "How is this possible, the hut was so small on the outside."

"You'd think that they'd learn not to underestimate the Digital World at this point!" Hawkmon exclaimed.

Gennai chuckled, "It's understandable the Human World is so different from ours."

He stood up, "Now if you'll follow me, I'll show you to your room, and," He sniffed the air and grimaced, "We'll get you a bath you all smell like you've been dragging yourself through Sewage Town."

Gennai waved his hand, and a section of the room slid apart revealing two staircases.

"Down the stairs is the washroom, up the stairs are the dining hall, kitchen, Living room, and the next staircase leading up to your bedroom," He gestured up the stairs, "Follow me," He said.

He raised his hand and one of the lanterns floated to it; he plucked it from the air and led us up the stair case.

"This is the dining hall," He said throwing the lantern back up to the ceiling, where it floated for a second before the other unlit lanterns sparked to life.

The lights revealed a grand dining hall, with a long wooden table, draped with crimson, jet black, and silver table cloths, wooden chairs, and a goblet, plate, small bowl, knife, fork, and spoon sitting on the table in front of each seat.

There was an unlit fire place up against the farthest wall of the room; Gennai reached his hand up and one of the floating lanterns from the ceiling slowly moved towards it. He plucked it from the air, before walking over and smashing it into the fireplace. A blaze engulfed the logs sitting elegantly in the darkness of the small cavern.

The old man sighed, "That's better."

My mind was still trying to process everything I was seeing, as Gennai pointed to a door across the room.

"That's the kitchen, and over here," He said, pulling a lever hidden behind a painting of a grass field with two moons, one pink, and one purple, hanging in a star studded sky. A section of the wall slid up, revealing a staircase.

"Up here is your bedroom," He continued, "Follow me please."

We headed up the spiraling staircase, to a ledge with two doors, one labeled girls, and one labeled boys. He pushed the boy's room door open, and we were greeted by another burning fire place against the wall, and a ceiling that appeared to be made of glass, through which the brilliant light from the Digital World's moons shone. The long room held ten beds.

Terriermon hopped off of my shoulder, "Hey," He exclaimed, "This one's got my name on it!"

He pulled the blankets back to reveal that the mattress appeared to be growing some sort of grass.

"It's the soft grass from the Village!" Terriermon exclaimed, flopping onto the bed.

"Mine's made of dirt," Tentomon exclaimed, "Just like the caves!"

"Mine's a nest," Hawkmon exclaimed, "Just like back in my old tree!"

"Mine's sand!" Armadillomon exclaimed, "Finally I can burrow again!"

"I've taken the liberty of supplying you all with a new set of clothes. I hope that they're fashionable enough for you!" Gennai said with a chuckle.

I walked over to the bed next to his. There was a plaque made of some sort of metal with my name on it. Lying on the bed was a large towel, and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a pair of gloves with finger holes, a black zip up and button over jacket made of some sort of thick cloth, the collar came up high, almost as if it were a neck protector there was a dark green letter D on the left pectoral of the jacket, and two dark green lines running parallel down the arms of the jacket. A pair of black and green sneakers sat at the foot of the bed.

"Hey," I said, "It's the same color as my shirt!"

"And me!" Terriermon added.

I looked over at the bed next to mine, Carson's name was on it with an outfit similar to mine sitting on the bed, and the color scheme was a black and blue color.

"Wait," I exclaimed, "Is Carson coming here?" I asked.

Gennai nodded, "He's Digidestined just like you all isn't he?"

I sighed," But he's not here now." I said, "It feels like it's been ages since I've seen him."

"How do you think that I feel," Ben exclaimed, "He's my brother!"

"I'm sure that he and Jessica are both fine," Nathan said.

Landon nodded in agreement.

Nathan turned to Gennai with a smile, "These clothes are all awesome Gennai,"

"So cool!" Landon said in agreement.

Gennai smirked, "Well thank you boys," He turned back towards the door, "Now go and get yourselves washed up for dinner, I'm so hungry I could eat my hands!"

With that he disappeared back down the staircase.

"He's not actually gonna eat his own hands is he Matt?" Terriermon asked.

I laughed, "No it's just a figure of speech dude."

Terriermon gave me a thumb up.

"Well," Hawkmon said, "You heard the man, let's go get cleaned up!"

Together we grabbed our towels, and headed back down the spiral staircase. As we pushed our way into the room, a small cat like Digimon covered in red fur, standing on two feet and with five yellow claws, and with a fire burning from a metal ring on its forehead, wrists, and with a bright blaze burning on the tip of its tail was bringing things into and out from the kitchen.

"Oh hello," The little Digimon said, "You all must be the Digidestined that I've been hearing so much about!"

"Who are you," I asked, as my Digivice began to beep furiously.

"I'm Coronamon, and it's a pleasure to meet you all!" He said, attempting to offer a hand shake and dropping a plate of food in the process.

Terriermon hopped off of my shoulder, and ran to help him clean up the mess.

"Here it is," Nathan said looking at the hologram emitting from his Digivice, "Coronamon Rookie level, Beast type Digimon, Special Attacks: Corona Flame and Petit Prominence!"

"Sorry about the mess," Coronamon said with chuckle, scratching it's head with embarrassment, "I just can't seem to keep my head on straight lately!"

"I'll say," Terriermon said, with a loud burp having eaten the fallen food, "There's a fire coming from it!"

"Terriermon," I exclaimed rushing over and grabbing him, "That's rude..I think!"

"No," Coronamon said, "Not at all; you don't see a lot of Digimon around here with a fire burning from their heads," He laughed, "Or do you?" He asked himself.

"So wait," Ben said, "I'm confused, Coronamon, are you like Gennai's partner or something?"

"Nope," Coronamon replied, "Gennai took me in back when I was just a little Sunmon! He lets me live here with him in exchange for helping out with some chores around the house, he's the best friend that I've ever had!"

"That's awesome!" Tentomon exclaimed.

"Yeah," Coronamon replied, his fire burning stronger for an instant, "But it gets kinda boring around here. There's not much to do."

"Well after we take a bath, we can all hang out for a while, how does that sound?" Armadillomon said.

"Sounds like a great time!" Coronamon responded, "Here let's head down to the washroom, and I'll heat up the spring for you guys!"

He rushed down the nearby set of stairs.

"Spring?" I asked Ben as we followed after him.

As we passed through the room we had entered the hut through, and onto the next set of stairs we heard Coronamon shout, "Over here you guys it's in this room!"

Light shone from the end of a small dark hallway to reveal a large room from which rich dark green grass was growing. At the very center of the room was an enormous swimming pool, and off to the left of it was some kind of kiln. A multitude of the floating lanterns shone down from the ceiling.

"This is the wash room," Coronamon said, "Gennai said to tell you all that you should wear your underwear, whatever that is, in the bath with you, the water will clean them, and you can lay them in the grass to dry them off, it'll suck all of the water right out of them!"

"This place just gets better and better," Nathan said, "I've gotta be honest, I don't know if I ever really want to leave this world."

Coronamon walked over to kiln, and exclaimed, "Corona Flame," sending a fireball bursting into it.

Immediately the pool began to emit a thick white steam.

"There you go," Coronamon said giving us a thumb up, "I'll leave you all to your weird human bathing customs then!"

And with that he left us in the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

"Well," Landon said, tearing his shirt off, "Last one in is a dead skunk!"

"Gross," Ben shouted!

We all quickly stripped down to our underwear, and dove into the pool.

The water was perfect, so warm.

"Man," Nathan said as his head burst through from under the water's surface, "I needed this for sure!"

"I can't remember the last time I felt this clean!" Terriermon exclaimed.

"You and me both brother!" Armadillomon said, sitting in a shallower part of the bath.

"Tentomon," Ben said, to his partner who was casually sitting on the soft grass at the bath's edge, "Climb in the water's great!"

"I'll pass," Tentomon said," If my wings get wet they're such a pain to dry off, and I can't fly without them!"

"Oh lighten up," Ben said pulling him into the water, "Enjoy it man!"

Tentomon sighed, "Three months without having to clean my wings." He shook his head.

"So Nate," Ben said, "You never told us how you ended up meeting Hawkmon."

"Oh right," He said with a grin, "Well I met Hawkmon a while after we arrived here in the Digital World."

"Back then I was called Poromon, I was not Digimon to be trifled with; Digimon the world over spoke my name in hushed whispers of fear and awe!"

"Oh please," Nathan said, bonking Hawkmon on the head, "When I met you, you were a pink ball of feathers the size of my head!"

I laughed, "Terriermon used to look like a slug."

Terriermon shook his head, "Those were dark times man."

"You mean five days ago?" Ben asked.

We all laughed.

"Seriously though," Nathan said, "So I wake up in this forest thinking you guys had run off and left me for dead or something."

I chuckled.

"So I spend a night moping before I realized that no one was there, and I started to see these huge spider things everywhere, so I fight my way through God-knows how much forest, before I come to this big tree that has a hole in the bottom. I crawl into the hole, and find Poromon hiding in it too."

"My nest had been taken over by a small army of Digimon called KoDokugamon." Hawkmon said.

"They were Fresh level Digimon, but believe me when there are enough of them; those things are a real problem! Hawkmon pointed one out to me, and I realized that they were the same big spiders that I had seen moving through the forest!"

"Spiders," Landon scoffed, "That was your first fight?"

I shivered, "That's some kind of fresh hell, I hate spiders."

Terriermon lightly ran his fingers across my shoulder.

"They're all over you!" He said with a snicker.

"Cut it out!" I shouted dunking him underneath the water.

"Yeah," Nathan added, "Spiders are gross, and there must've been a hundred of those things when they had finally all caught up to me."

"It was as if the trees themselves were growing KoDokugamon." Hawkmon added.

I shivered.

"They kept making this clicking noise. So finally I decided to try and help Hawkmon, again who was at the time a Poromon, escape but when we were leaving the tree I got cornered by a huge pack of KoDokugamon, and before long it seemed as if they were all after me again!"

"I remember hearing Nathan shouting for help," Hawkmon said, "So I turned back and went to save him. I didn't think that I would be able to do much to help, but I felt compelled to do something."

"Well that," Ben added, "And that's just common decency you don't just let a kid get eaten alive by spiders."

"Yeah," Hawkmon replied with a nod, "That too."

"Unless the kid is some kind of mutant-zombie hybrid," Terriermon interjected, "Who's only goal in life is to eat…"

"Anyways," Nathan said, "So the KoDokugamon are attacking me and I'm thinking that it's all over."

"Then," Hawkmon said, "Middle, Middle, Middle, I come back throw myself at the KoDokugamon, and that Digivice appears on Nathan's wrist."

"I used my Fractal Code, and Poromon digivolved into Hawkmon; together we proceed to kick the crap out of every KoDokugamon in the vicinity."

"So when did you all meet up," Ben asked Landon and Nathan, "I mean when we got to the Tree of New Beginnings, you were already together!"

"To be honest," Armadillomon said, "We hadn't been at the Tree for long before you all showed up!"

"A day at most," Landon said.

"This world is so big," I said, "It makes me wonder just where Carson and Jessica are, and whether or not they're together."

"I bet they're looking for us," Tentomon added, "From what Gennai said earlier, it sounds like the Digidestined can't be separated for long!"

"I'd sleep better at night knowing my brother wasn't out there while that creep Boogeymon is hunting us down." Ben said.

"Me too Ben." I replied.

"They're both tough kids, and if they're Digidestined that means they must have partners, right?" Landon said.

"I wonder who Carson's partner is." Ben said.

"I guess whenever he gets to us, Terriermon and his partner will have to duke it out!" I said.

"No doubt I'll come out on top!" Terriermon exclaimed, high fiving me with his ear, "All I've gotta do is digivolve into Gargomon and put some shots out, his partner would be no match for me!"

"Oh please," Landon said, "Whenever Armadillomon digivolves, he'll be stronger than all of you guys put together!"

"Now Landon," Armadillomon said with a chuckle of embarrassment, "Let's not let your mouth write a check that my butt can't cash!"

"Hawkmon doesn't even need to digivolve to smoke you guys"! Nathan added with cocky grin, "He'll take Gargomon on, head on, right now with no problem!"

"Uhhh what?" Hawkmon exclaimed.

"Do I smell a bet coming on?" I asked.

"Oh no," Ben said face palming, "This is gonna get much worse before it gets better."

"Well," Landon said, "Now Ben, let's see where this goes, Nathan talks a big game, but let's see if he and Hawkmon can back it up!"

"For the record," Hawkmon added, "I didn't agree to any of this."

"What's wrong Hawkmon," Terriermon said grinning from ear to ear mischievously, "Or should I call you "Chickenmon"?"

Hawkmon grunted, "Alright fine, I'll take you on anytime, anywhere!"

Armadillomon laughed, "You guys are a bunch of morons!"

"Then it's settled," Landon said, "Tonight after dinner, Terriermon versus Hawkmon in a one on one battle!"

"I feel that this is a grievous misuse of our partners," Ben interjected, "However, I am a betting man, what's the wager?"

"When we get back home," I said, "The loser has to buy everyone Super Spicy Buffalo Wings from Buffalouie's, deal?" I said offering Nathan a hand shake.

"Oh I can get in on that one!" Landon exclaimed.

"You'll be buying me a whole buffalo; I don't even want the wings!" Terriermon exclaimed.

I sighed shaking my head.

Nathan smirked, "I hope you can get your allowance money early this month, you've got a deal!"

"Then it's settled," Tentomon said, "This will be a fight for the ages!


End file.
